Quarantined
by Sarah Everton
Summary: When an unknown alien escapes, Alex locks herself and Maggie in the med bay after being exposed to its powers. As they struggle to figure out how dangerous the alien really is, the situation soon takes a turn for the worse.
1. Chapter 1

Maggie Sawyer knew that it had all gone wrong the second she set foot into the DEO that Monday afternoon.

She wasn't supposed to be meeting anyone, but work had been slow, and she figured that she could take home the paperwork, and stop by her girlfriend's workplace with a coffee and some food first.

Their weekend had been absolute hell. Between Alex's research on the DNA of an alien captured on Friday, and her own investigation into a brawl that left two aliens dead on the curb, neither of them had really seen much of the other.

They'd canceled their Saturday night dinner reservation without discussion, and had both worked late. Alex had been home first, Maggie crawling into the bed hours later, and falling asleep quickly.

Sunday morning had been one huge clusterfuck of arguing. Alex's frustration at the lack of progress, and Maggie's exhaustion from running all over town to chase leads the day before and barely getting any sleep brought out the worst in them.

Neither of them knew who started yelling, or why they were taking it out on one another. But Maggie had stormed off to work, leaving a raging Alex behind, and they hadn't talked since.

She assumed that Alex had slept at the DEO, because she hadn't seen her at all that evening. After Maggie had sent out a text to ask if she was safe and alright, Alex had sent back one single ' _I'm fine'_ , and that had been the end of it.

But now, after spending the early morning chasing and apprehending the brawlers, she finally had a clear mind to make things right with Alex. She hated fighting with her, and she hoped that they would be able to talk it out.

The rational part of her knew that Alex wasn't angry at her, just frustrated at how little she'd progressed. Maggie had briefly heard from Kara that morning, who had mentioned how Alex seemed to be falling into the bottomless pit of obsessive research. No eating, barely any sleeping…

It was a side of Alex Maggie recognized and admired, but hated. She knew the things Alex had done with the rest of her team. Incredible biological advancements, revolutionary science. But it cost Alex her health and wellbeing – and Maggie would never be okay with that.

So she hoped that the coffee would get Alex to stop working, even for just a few minutes, to eat and talk. Vent about her frustrations, if she really had to. But Maggie would be there.

The receptionist buzzed her in with a wide smile, and Maggie stepped into the elevator.

As the doors closed, she remembered the last time she'd been in the DEO. It hadn't been for Alex, but rather for J'onn, who insisted that they needed to talk, just the two of them.

He'd offered her a job at the DEO as a field operative. Assisting in missions, as she'd previously done a few times. As much as he liked having her as a contact at the NCPD they could rely on, J'onn knew that her alien knowledge and situational assessment were invaluable to the DEO team. He'd seen the way Maggie got information out of people. How she told the right people the right things to get what she wanted. She was an excellent negotiator in crisis situations.

Maggie would be lying if she said that she wasn't completely flattered. But she'd asked for time to think it through. She liked working at the NCPD. Her father, flawed as he was, was a cop. And she'd looked up to him all through her childhood. _He_ was the reason she wanted to become a police officer. That she eventually enrolled in the academy. As much as she loved the DEO with all of its technological advantages, budget and equipment – compared to the NCPD's resources, the DEO was heaven on earth – the charm of good old fashioned policework had never failed to grab her.

The DEO was a secret organization that only interfered in the field when absolutely necessary, and even then handled things as quickly and discretely as possible. The NCPD handled aliens on a daily basis, with a wide range of issues and crimes.

At that point, Maggie was completely unsure what to decide. She loved Alex, and the thought of working alongside her every day made her heart flutter. Kara, Winn, J'onn… All of the people she now considered family would be there with her.

But the NCPD, as cold and lonely as it could occasionally be, had been her home for the past two years. She was appreciated. A great detective, and she had her partners' backs in the field. The medals that Alex had so proudly put in plain view at their apartment proved that she was at least doing _something_ right. The DEO would mean completely different moral gray areas, and starting from the bottom once again.

The elevator doors opened on the floor of the command center, and Maggie walked out. She could see J'onn talking to Winn at his desk, a few other agents that she didn't recognize standing next to them. They seemed in the middle of a briefing, so Maggie didn't disturb them, and went straight for Alex's lab.

To her slight surprise, she found the lab completely deserted. The computer was on, and there were notes scribbled down in her girlfriend's meticulous handwriting scattered all across the table, but no Alex in sight.

Maggie walked down the corridor, looking through the glass walls of the labs trying to spot Alex, when she finally crossed a familiar face.

Milo. A bioengineer at the DEO, and a close collaborator on most of Alex's projects. A blonde man in his late twenties, wearing a DEO-issued lab coat. His glasses were halfway down his nose, and he looked to be in a rush. Maggie reached out her arm before he could pass her, grabbing his upper arm.

The man turned around, and smiled quickly when he saw her, adjusting his glasses. "Detective."

"Have you seen Alex?" Maggie said, trying to get to the point as fast as possible as to not waste the man's time.

Milo frowned in thought. "She's still working on that DNA reconstruction… I think she was going to the med bay to take more samples from the subject."

Maggie nodded gratefully as she walked in the direction of the med bay. Behind her, she heard Milo's amused voice. "Good luck!"

Well, if anybody knew the Alex-obsessed-with-work-mode, it was him.

Sure enough, she spotted the back of Alex's head through the glass panel wall of the room, before entering. Alex was crouched down next to a cupboard, grabbing supplies and mumbling to herself darkly. "Where is that _damn_ scalpel…"

Maggie raised an amused eyebrow and looked around the room, spotting a wrapped scalpel on a tray next to the door. She grabbed it, and raised it. "Right here."

As expected, Alex jumped at the sound of her voice, and almost hit her head on the cupboard she'd been digging in. She carefully pulled her head out, and looked up.

"Maggie…" She said, surprised to see her girlfriend standing next to the door, scalpel in one hand, and a brown bag in the other.

"I brought coffee." Maggie offered, raising the bag. Alex sighed, and took the scalpel from her hand. "We _have_ coffee here."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but you always complain that it's horrible."

Alex took a seat on a small rolling stool, moving towards one of the beds, occupied by a huge, caveman-like alien. Dark, hairy and intimidating, although he looked more or less harmless in his unconscious state.

"I've been trying to analyze him for two days straight, but it's…" Alex trailed off, as she pulled down the sheets to make an incision in his side. Maggie watched her work.

"… The DNA is not comparable to any species we know." The agent concluded, inspecting her work as she reached for a small container on a nearby tray.

Maggie took another long look at the restrained alien. She didn't recognize it. It looked vaguely human, but too disformed and animalistic to actually be one. It looked more like those reconstructed animations of how humans had evolved from apes.

"How did you find him?" She finally asked. The concern for Alex's state was going to be her next move, but for now fascination and interest took over. Adding new species and solar systems to the list was always exciting. It felt like putting down one more piece in the infinite jigsaw puzzle of the universe.

"He crashed down to earth on Friday." Alex said, not looking up from her work. "… Not exactly a pod, more like a comet he was inside of. It landed a few miles off the shore, but he has been unconscious ever since we pulled him out. Scans showed that the bone structures were pretty humanoid, but the organs were completely different, so I can't pinpoint what's wrong exactly. He could be dead, or comatose…" She concluded with a heavy sigh, before raising the tissue, hairs and other samples she'd been extracting. "… I need to get this back to the lab."

"Alex." Maggie stopped her, moving in her way. "Can we talk first?"

The agent rolled her eyes. "Can we just… do this tonight?"

The detective raised an eyebrow. "That depends on if you're going to hide out here again like last night."

Alex huffed. "I wasn't hiding. I worked, and by the time I wanted to go to sleep, it was already morning, so I just slept here for a few hours instead of losing time by driving home."

"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that." Maggie grunted, putting the bag down. "I brought you food, and a cup of coffee from that place down the street that you like. Can you _please_ just eat something so I know you're not going to pass out?"

The agent put the samples down on the counter and crossed her arms, leaning against it. "Fine. I'll eat after I'm finished testing the samples."

It seemed like an evasive answer, and Maggie wasn't completely satisfied, but she knew that it was all she was going to get out of Alex for now.

She sensed that Alex seemed more eager to talk when it was about the alien, so she segued back to that quickly. "Did he have anything on him? A distress beacon, homing device…?"

"Nothing. We're working on analyzing the comet as well, but so far it doesn't pinpoint any location."

"You need a break, Alex." Maggie said in a quiet and gentle voice, taking a few steps in her direction until she was in front of her, putting a hand on her cheek and looking at her with concerned eyes. "I'm worried about you. And so is Kara."

Alex shook her head. "Everything's okay. I just need to find a way to get this."

"Listen." Maggie roped her arms around Alex's neck. "The guy's unconscious. He could stay like that for hours, days, months. You taking a one-hour break to get out of here and get some decent food in you won't matter. It won't end the world. You _know_ that."

Alex sighed, looking down. "I… I know. But I'm just…"

She trailed off. But Maggie didn't need the words to know how Alex felt. She leaned forward, to pull Alex in a proper hug, and hold her. "I get it. It's okay. But _please_ , Alex. For me?"

She felt the agent pull away, and watched Alex nod. "Okay. One hour. You're buying me lunch."

"Deal." Maggie smirked, as she leaned in to capture Alex's lips in a sweet kiss. She was kind of glad they hadn't exactly sat down to talk about their feelings in terms of yesterday's argument, but she knew that they were in a good place again.

Maggie let go of Alex, and walked over to the door with a bright smirk.

But as she passed the bed, a rumbling noise to her left made her stop dead in her tracks and turn into the direction of the sound.

Coming from the alien on the bed.

"I think he's waking up." She said, leaning in slightly to confirm. Alex put a hand on her shoulder to pull her back. "Careful. We don't know if he's friendly."

Maggie took a step back, but watched with fascination as the alien started shifting, and finally opened its eyes. Bright, brown, and so _nearly_ human that it was actually scary.

Yet she didn't have a lot of time to reflect on them, as the alien's eyes settled on her as the first thing he saw in the room, and stared her down.

"Hey." Maggie tried from the side of the bed. "Can you understand me? Do you know where you are?"

Alex, in the meantime, had taken a seat on the rolling chair again, moving it forward to the foot of the bed, checking his charts but keeping one eye trained on his figure.

The alien didn't reply to Maggie, but continued to stare at her.

After that, everything was a blur.

Alex was just about to make a comment about the lack of knowledge on the alien's vital signs, when she saw him pull out of the clasps that confined him to the bed effortlessly, raising a hand to pull a caught off guard Maggie onto the bed.

The indignant yelp that her girlfriend let out was enough for Alex to jump up and reflexively reach for the back of her leather jacket, to pull her away from him.

Seconds later, she felt a sharp sting at her neck, but ignored it in favor of pulling Maggie to the ground. She watched the alien escape from the rest of his restraints, and jump off the bed to run out of the med bay.

Alex stumbled towards the touchpad on the wall, and triggered the emergency protocol with a few taps. Immediately, an alarm started blaring, as the DEO went in lockdown. If she didn't know what the alien was, the last thing she wanted was for it to run around National City freely.

A grunt from the floor made Alex run back to Maggie's side, and roll her over. "Maggie…? _Babe_?"

The detective moaned weakly, as she was clutching a spot on her left shoulder. Alex gently pried her hand away, and her stomach dropped.

"H-he _bit_ me…" Maggie needlessly supplied, as Alex saw the large, angry mark, oozing blood where the teeth had broken her skin.

She didn't want to think about what endless, horrible effects that bite could have.

As she moved her head to look around for help, she felt something stinging in her neck. She touched around the sore area with her finger, finding something hard stuck in her skin. She yanked it out, expecting it to be a needle or dart of some sorts.

She almost threw up at the sight of the yellowed and dirty fingernail in her hand. The tip was coated in blood, and Alex realized immediately that it was hers.

Grasping the possible severity of the situation, Alex moved back to the touchpad, and activated the quarantine mode, to lock off the med bay as a safety precaution.

Protocol.

Because whatever that thing was, if its defense mechanisms were anything remotely contagious or toxic, then the both of them were severely fucked.


	2. Chapter 2

" _Alex_!"

The desperate yell of her sister made her look up. She saw Kara, in her Supergirl uniform, standing at the now sealed door of the med bay, her hands pressed up against the glass and her face showing pure panic.

It was hard to hear anything over the sound of the still blaring alarm. Just when Alex crawled up to meet her sister at the door, the fluorescent lights went out, bathing the room in the red emergency light.

Alex managed to get up from the floor, as Kara moved to the touchpad to open the door. "I can't… _open it_!"

"I know." Alex nodded, her expression nothing but seriousness. "I activated emergency protocols. Did you get him?!"

"Get who?! I just flew in from my rounds when everything went in lockdown!"

Alex's stomach dropped. She _prayed_ that the alien would still be inside the DEO. Super speed could be a factor; if he _had_ managed to escape, he'd be long gone.

"The alien, Kara. You need to find the alien."

Kara frowned, and opened her mouth to no doubt ask for details, when her eyes widened at the sight of Maggie behind Alex. The detective was sitting up, her back leaning on the now vacant bed. She was clutching her shoulder, but she was awake, and looked more pissed than anything else.

"Alex, what _happened_?!"

Before Alex could explain anything, Kara looked to the side. She watched as J'onn, Winn and Amelia Hamilton, the leading medical expert of the DEO, walked over to Kara.

"For god's sake, somebody shut down that alarm!" J'onn growled in his earpiece, before he looked at his second-in-command behind the glass. "Alex. You okay?"

"Emergency protocol." Alex replied, getting down to business instantly. "The alien got away, he must still be somewhere around here. I activated the lockdown as soon as he ran out."

J'onn nodded. "Agent Schott is tracking him; he's hiding somewhere in the basement. There are agents already getting ready to capture it."

"Tell them to wear full body armor, and helmets. It bites."

She could see Kara's eyes looking up and down, trying to see where it would have bitten Alex. The agent sighed, and looked back at Maggie's form on the ground, still clutching her shoulder.

Finally, the alarm shut down, and the building went eerily silent.

"What's that puncture wound?" Amelia asked, pointing at Alex's neck. Her hand went down to the wound once again. "One of the alien's fingernails. I put it down over there. And I still have the alien's samples, I was on my way to test them when he woke up."

"Okay, so open the door and give them to-…" Kara started, but both J'onn and Alex interrupted her at the same time with a resounding "No".

"It's too dangerous. We don't know what it can do, the bite could be contagious."

"We're completely in the dark." J'onn grunted, realizing how grave the situation was. "Agent Schott, keep tracking the alien. Supergirl, maybe go see if the Fortress of Solitude has any information on the alien?"

Kara shot one last worried glance at her sister, before running off. Alex watched her go, before her attention was pulled back by J'onn. "It was a good call to activate the quarantine."

He turned to Amelia. "I'm going to go help detain the alien. Can you…"

The doctor nodded with a smile, before looking back at Alex when the two of them were alone. "Hey, Alex."

Alex chuckled weakly, running a hand through her hair. "I've been at it for _hours_ trying to analyze the anatomy and DNA, Amelia, I don't know _anything_."

"Okay, easy." Amelia looked serious, as she raised the clipboard she'd been holding. "If I can't come in, you're going to have to do it yourself, okay? Can you do that?"

Alex nodded quickly, balling her hands into fists. She needed to be professional. She'd been quarantined before – if she kept a level head, everything would be alright.

"You said you still have samples?"

"Yeah, they're on a tray here. Saliva, tissue, hair…" Alex trailed off.

"Okay. And you have equipment set up for analyzing?"

"Not as much as in the lab, but we have some microscopes and centrifuges here." Alex glanced around the room. "I'll start working right away."

"No, hang on, hang on." Amelia stopped her. "The two of you. Medical first."

She looked behind Alex, to where Maggie had been following the entire conversation from her spot on the floor. "Detective Sawyer, how are you feeling?"

"I've had worse." Maggie grunted, still nursing the bleeding spot on her shoulder. "Don't worry."

"We'll treat it like a venomous bite for now, until we have a better view of the situation."

Alex nodded. Amelia sighed. "I have no more expertise here than you, but I'll try and keep you updated. Agent Schott is monitoring the camera's here, so if anything goes wrong, I'll be here in less than 30 seconds. If you need me, call me on the touchpad, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Alex asked.

"We need to work double time on this. I need to go brief the bio team so they can continue your research. But I'll be back as soon as possible, Alex."

After another quick 'good luck', Amelia rushed out of the corridor.

"Shit." Alex heard Maggie's defeated sigh behind her. She turned around, and walked towards her girlfriend, who was now grimacing. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Peachy." Maggie hissed. Alex reached forward to examine the wound up close, but frowned when Maggie pulled away quickly. "Don't… don't touch it!"

"Why? Does it hurt?" Alex asked, getting up from her crouched position to start gathering medical supplies from the cabinets. She tried ignore how much her hands were shaking, and willed herself to stay calm. She was a trained field operative, for god's sake. This was a cakewalk. She just had to _stay calm._

"Only when you touch it."

Alex tried to remember her training. Venomous bites.

No exertion, no incisions, no covering the wound.

"Do you feel dizzy? Nauseous? Does your head hurt?"

"None of those." Maggie shook her head. "It's just… pulsing."

Alex nodded slowly. The fact that she had no real symptoms of poisoning was at least slightly reassuring. "What about blurred vision? Can you see alright?"

"I feel fine, Alex."

"Okay, I'm just going to clean the wound, alright? But it's going to hurt."

Maggie chuckled weakly. "I'm not a kid, Danvers, it's fine. Do it."

As Alex moved closer, she saw the wince on Maggie's face return. She had to be quick; if the alien really had been venomous, then it could have already spread through her entire body with unforeseeable consequences.

"What about you? Are you okay?" Maggie gritted through her teeth, looking up as Alex moved closer. Upon her pressing a gauze pad to the wound, Maggie finally cried out in pain, looking away.

Alex was breathing through her nose, trying to hold her composure. _Don't think about it… Focus on what you're doing… Don't…_

"Stop… _stop_ …" Maggie pleaded weakly. Alex pulled back the gauze immediately, and looked up. "I'm sorry…"

Maggie shook her head, dismissing the apology. But the sweat appearing on her forehead and her ragged breaths did nothing to ease Alex's mind.

"What kind of pain is it?"

"It burns… But it kind of comes and goes."

"Just the shoulder?"

Maggie looked uncertain, as she thought about it. "My head too."

Alex took a deep breath. "Okay, so, definitely _something_ …" She looked back at her girlfriend. "Babe, everyone here is working on it. We're going to get an antidote soon, alright? Just… stay with me."

"The floor is getting hard." Maggie said.

"I don't want to move you around too much. That'll make it spread faster." Alex said, biting her lip. She really didn't want to make it worse, but obviously Maggie couldn't stay down on the ground for the foreseeable future.

"I'll be quick." Maggie grunted, getting herself up from the floor. Alex moved in to help her, by putting a hand on her lower back. But the second Maggie tried to lift herself up from the floor, she dropped back with another yell of pain.

Alex's eyes widened, as she moved forward to steady her, but that only made it worse, as she continued her painful screaming, tears now streaming down her face.

"Maggie!" Alex was at a loss. She was crouching down in an unnatural angle, and decided quickly to pull Maggie up in her arms – ignoring the screaming – and place her down onto one of the vacant beds.

She turned around to rummage through the drawers to get an IV set up. Maybe some morphine would at least ease some of Maggie's pain. Because the screams cut Alex to the bone, and she _never_ wanted to hear the desperate crying again.

Maggie had stopped screaming, and was now breathing heavily. "Fuck… _fuck,_ that hurt…"

"Is it better?" Alex asked, as she was hanging the saline solution on the stand.

"Yeah… I think it's over."

A loud knocking on the door of the med bay made the both of them look up. Amelia and Winn were standing wide-eyed on the other side. Alex ran over to the door.

"Is she okay?" Winn asked immediately.

"Better now." Maggie replied from her spot on the bed, already moving to sit upright. Amelia frowned. "Maggie, _stop_ moving."

Alex watched the detective ignore the plea and swing her legs over the side of the bed to sit up. She turned back to her coworkers. "No dizziness or blurred vision, no fever. No other symptoms. Just random spikes of pain. I'm not sure it's actually venom."

"We can't rule it out, Alex." Amelia shook her head. "What are you thinking?"

"I have no idea."

A _beep_ from Winn's tablet made him frown, as he tapped the touchscreen a few times. "They lost the alien. He still has to be inside, but they can't find him anywhere…" He looked up. "Maybe he's a shapeshifter? Or maybe-"

"He's in the armory."

Alex felt three pairs of confused eyes land on her. Only seconds later did she realize that the voice had been her own.

"Uh…" Winn frowned, and tapped his tablet a few times, swiping through the camera feeds all around the building. Finally, he found the feed of the armory, and his eyes widened. "Holy…" He pressed his earpiece. "J'onn, he's in the armory on the second floor!"

His wide eyes snapped up to meet Alex. "How did you know that?!"

"I…" Alex seemed taken aback by her own statement. "I don't… know? I just… _knew_."

"Babe…" Maggie's shaky voice. Alex turned around to see her lover staring at her. "Come here. _Slowly_."

"What?" Alex asked, confused at the command. But Maggie didn't seem in the mood for jokes. "Come over here, one step at a time. Slowly."

Alex glanced back, but Amelia and Winn seemed as confused as she was. Carefully, she took a step in Maggie's direction. And another one, and then another one. Keeping her eyes trained on Maggie at all times. But the detective didn't seem to respond until she was a few feet away.

Alex noticed Maggie's breathing getting faster, and concern took over her body once again as she took a big step into her direction. Was Maggie trying not to make them worry? Was she trying to downplay her symptoms?

As Alex approached her and reached a hand out to her, Maggie suddenly doubled over on the bed, both hands clutching her head. Alex yelled out her name and put a hand on her good shoulder.

She didn't expect Maggie to shove her away so forcefully that Alex was knocked off balance, and tumbled onto the ground, taking a tray of surgical equipment with her on the way down.

After the loud clattering of the tray had died down, the entire room went silent.

Amelia and Winn were both frozen at the door. Maggie was breathing heavily, her eyes wide at the realization of what she'd done.

" _Maggie_ …?" Alex whispered, the confusion clear in her voice.

"It's better…" Maggie said, more to herself than to Alex. Finally, her eyes landed on her girlfriend's form on the floor.

"It's _you_ , Alex… You're hurting me."


	3. Chapter 3

"W-what?" Alex stammered, still on the ground. "I don't…"

"Alex, get away from her!" Amelia yelled, her hand pressed up against the glass.

"But…" Alex seemed heartbroken as she stumbled to her feet and stepped backwards. " _Mags_ …"

Her girlfriend shook her head quickly. "Did he get you?"

"He hit me with a nail…" She trailed off, touching the wound on her neck once again.

"It must be something physiological." Amelia stated, already looking around. "Alex, I'm _serious_ , stay away from her until we figure out what's going on. I need to go update the team."

" _Amelia_!" Alex yelled, slamming her fist against the glass in frustration, but the brunette had already run off, leaving behind a nervous-looking Winn.

"Right, so, it _is_ possible that the nail had some sort of toxin… Should I…?" He moved to the touchpad next to the door, but Alex shook her head quickly. "Don't-! Just don't."

She sighed in defeat. "Just, figure something out. And fast, Winn."

He didn't need to be told twice, as he ran off, already tapping his tablet furiously. Alex leaned her head against the glass door, and closed her eyes.

 _How had things gone so wrong, so quickly?_

"Babe?"

Alex turned around at the sound of Maggie's gentle voice, but she didn't dare to move from her spot at the door.

Maggie swallowed thickly, and Alex saw the tears in her eyes. "I-I'm sorry for pushing you."

"It's okay." Alex replied, shaking her head quickly. " _I'm_ sorry for hurting you."

A weak chuckle. "It's not your fault."

Alex wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly unsure on how to proceed. All she really wanted to do was hold Maggie, but now that that seemed out of the question, she didn't know what to do anymore.

"Go do the samples." Maggie said, nursing her shoulder again. "I'm fine, Al. Don't worry. You can come closer."

"No." Alex shook her head decisively. "I'm _not_ taking any chances. I could be… _poisoning_ you."

Maggie huffed. "Well, you can't stay there by the door all day."

Alex ignored her, and raised a hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose. The whole situation was giving her a headache, not to mention the weird images she'd been seeing. She was pretty sure that her earlier stunt with the armory hadn't been a coincidence. Ever since that flash of vision, she'd been having more of them. Fleeting, quick, but persistent nonetheless.

Like she was watching through the alien's eyes.

The sight of the scared-looking DEO agents raising their weapons and yelling, made her blood run cold.

"Hey… You okay?" She heard Maggie ask behind her. Alex turned around quickly to face her, and flashed a weak smile. "Yeah, just a headache."

She didn't want to worry Maggie even more by telling her about the vision. If anything, Maggie needed to stay calm. If the bite had contained some type of venom, then she needed to keep her lover's heartrate down. "What about you?"

"I'm alright."

Silence fell upon the two, as Maggie watched her girlfriend trying to move but stopping herself. Eventually, she got tired of it. "Alex, can you _please_ just go? I'm not going to drop dead."

Alex didn't seem too convinced about that last part, but gave in and shuffled to the other side of the room slowly, watching Maggie's face for any hint of discomfort. She made it to the table on the wall that had a microscope and other analyzing gear, and the tray of samples.

Putting on a pair of gloves from a nearby box, she got to work quickly. Maggie watched her from the bed with a curious look on her face.

 _Just a quick visit to the DEO_ , she grunted to herself. Of course it would turn into a crazy witch hunt. What else were Mondays for.

Watching Alex through the silence between the two of them made Maggie realize how exhausted she actually was. With barely four hours of sleep for the past two nights and running around like a mad man all weekend, she could really use a nap.

Not to mention the excruciating pain from earlier had seeped all of the energy from her. If she'd just… lay down and rest her eyes…

The second she moved back to put her head on the pillow, she felt Alex's eyes on her. But her girlfriend didn't say anything, and so Maggie didn't reply. A small sigh, and she leaned her head to the side, away from the door, and closed her eyes.

After a few seconds, she was already on the brink of falling asleep.

"I _shouldn't_ have."

Alex's remorseful voice filled her ears, and Maggie frowned without looking up or opening her eyes. "What?"

"I shouldn't have yelled at you yesterday. I knew how much pressure you were under, and how much stuff was going on at work. I shouldn't have taken anything out on you, you didn't deserve it."

The silence after her words was heavy, but Maggie was still looking for things to say. Finally, she settled on opening her eyes and looking right at Alex, who was staring at a spot underneath the bed.

" _I'm_ sorry too. I shouldn't have left like that. And I should have listened to you, you were obviously venting about work."

"No, it wasn't your f-…" Alex started, but she was cut off by white hot pain searing through her head, accompanied by another flash.

 _DEO agents._ Agents she trusted, that she worked with.

Dead, bleeding, crippled. Moaning on the ground in front of the alien's feet.

He brought his hands up to check them. Only one nail from his right hand was missing.

He balled his hands into fists, and ran off, out of the armory.

The flash ended as abruptly as it came, but it didn't stop Alex from gasping, and almost dropping the petri dish she'd been holding.

Maggie noticed the change in behavior quickly, and moved to sit upright. "Alex? Are you okay?!"

"I…" Alex whispered, but she couldn't find the words to voice the things she'd just witnessed. _Death_. The alien had _murdered_ some of her fellow agents. "Oh _god_ …"

" _Alex_!" Maggie yelled again, her concern growing at her girlfriend's disheveled state.

Alex herself was trying not to pass out. Her legs were starting to feel shaky. "T-they're dead…"

"Who?!"

The agent shot a glance into Maggie's direction, her eyes wide and full of fear.

Before they rolled backwards, and she slid down the stool, landing on the ground with a rough _thud._

Maggie's heart stopped, as she yelled her girlfriend's name once again, throwing her legs off the side of the bed and running to her side.

A few feet away from her, the excruciating burning in her head returned, but she _had_ to ignore it. She had to know if Alex was okay, if that _fucking_ alien had done something to her.

It was like touching fire. The second she raised a hand in the agent's direction, it felt like she was in hell. But she _had to…_

"Alex!" she yelled again, admitting defeat and jumping away from her, clutching her head. " _Please_!"

Seconds later, Alex took a huge gulp of breath and shot upright, almost hitting her head on the table in front of her. She looked around, disoriented, and her eyes soon found Maggie's scared ones.

"Mags! Are you okay?!"

"What?! _No_!" Maggie yelled back, a tear slipping down her cheek. " _Jesus_ , Alex! I thought-…" She stopped herself, shaking her head. "You passed out. You said something about 'them' being dead. What happened?!"

"The alien." Alex whispered, her memory of the flash finally returning to her. "… It attacked the strike team in the armory, he killed agents. They didn't get him."

"How do you know? Can you see him?"

"I… I can see _through_ him. Like in a dream. I can see what he sees, through his eyes." Alex frowned. "It has to be that nail… He must have connected with me somehow."

Maggie got to her feet, leaning against the wall for support as she moved back towards the bed. She saw Alex, close to tears, and completely disoriented and scared. "Alex, come here."

"No." The agent shook her head quickly. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I'll _tell_ you when you need to stop, but I just need-…"

Alex was having none of it. "No! I _heard_ you scream, Maggie! I _never_ want to hear that again, let alone cause it!" She closed her eyes, trying to banish the cries from her thoughts. "… Just stay away from me."

It hurt like a punch to the gut, and Maggie tried her best to compartmentalize. But she _needed_ Alex. She needed the bioengineering nerd she'd fallen in love with, to tell her that it was all going to be alright.

Because she didn't like Alex having a connection to that alien in the slightest. And the bite mark on her shoulder was throbbing painfully, probably strengthened by Alex's presence in the room.

 _What if they were never able to cure it._

What if she had to spend the rest of her life having to stay away from Alex, not being able to touch her ever again?

 _Oh god…_

Before she knew it, she was crying again. Alex noticed it immediately, and her expression softened. "Babe… Is it the pain?"

"I just…" Maggie wiped at her cheeks. "… I just need you to _hold_ me. I know how-…"

Alex cut her off immediately, her face now completely unreadable. "You're _killing_ me, Maggie."

"I- what?" The detective asked, taken aback by the answer. Alex took a seat on the stool again, leaning her elbows on the table. "I don't want to _hurt_ you, Mags. Don't _ask_ me to."

"I'm not asking you to!" Maggie shot back quickly, feeling completely helpless.

"Calm down." Alex said, raising her head again to look at her. "You can't get worked up, your heartrate needs to-…"

" _Fuck off_ , Alex." Maggie growled, dropping her head back onto the pillow in frustration. She just wanted to talk to Alex about the situation, about the insecurities. About Alex's health.

She didn't _need_ the clinical bullshit. Alex telling her that she needed to stay calm, when she just _passed out_ in front of her eyes. _None_ of this was okay.

But the second the words left her mouth, she felt guilty. Alex was in for the ride as much as she was. She hadn't gotten any more sleep than her, and she was under huge pressure, not to mention _her_ mystery symptoms.

But her girlfriend's loud sigh, and watching her focus back on the petri dish and samples in front of her, told her to leave her alone.

After that, the loud, painful silence returned.


	4. Chapter 4

As much faith as Maggie had in Alex, she knew that the samples wouldn't tell her anything.

Because if she'd been hunched over that same microscope for the past two days, what else could she possibly do that would change everything?

Maggie Sawyer was a realist. It made living easier if she just accepted certain harsh realities, instead of hoping that they would turn out different. She tried to operate with her head instead of her heart. If there was a _chance_ she could get something done, she'd give it her all.

But _this_ … Maggie knew that it was futile.

Of course, she wasn't going to tell Alex that. If it gave her something to focus on, that was the least she could do, after everything they'd been through.

A tapping on the glass made Maggie look up. Alex hadn't heard it, or at least didn't respond to it. So she took point, jumping off the bed and walking to the door.

"What's going on, Winn?"

The brunette ran a hand through his spiky hair. "Right uh… detaining the alien in the armory didn't exactly go smoothly… we suffered some casualties, and there are a few injured agents. Problem is – you guys are in the med bay." He chuckled nervously. "So we're setting up a triage in one of the biolabs, but we barely have medical supplies."

"Open it up, then." Maggie frowned. "I feel fine. _You're_ close to me, and you're not hurting me. It's just Alex."

She was pretty sure she hadn't imagined the shaky intake of breath coming from behind her.

"J'onn gave orders not to let you out until we're absolutely sure that the two of you are safe, and you know - _not contagious_." He looked up. "We're going to make it work, don't worry."

"Is he alright?"

"He's fine. The alien showed super strength, and he only attacked with his fists. No biting, throwing nails, or anything like that. But he did manage to take out the entire strike team. And he's on the loose again."

Maggie glanced back at Alex. "Is Kara back yet?"

"Not yet. She's not answering either, but I hope that's good news. In the meantime, there's nothing you can do but wait, really. Do you want me to bring you a movie or something?"

The detective frowned. Winn realized immediately that it had been a faux pas. "Uh, yeah, no. Totally, never mind. I'll go… uh… yeah." He stumbled off.

Maggie leaned against the door, and tried to think. She wasn't a scientist like Alex, a doctor like Amelia, or a tech specialist like Winn, but _damn it_ if she wasn't going to try and pull her weight with this.

She hadn't seen the alien before. It might have been the first of his kind to touch down on Earth at all. But that didn't mean that nobody on this planet knew of its existence.

The bar – some people over there might know. And she had some 'friends' that hung out in a crack house in the poorer part of town. She'd visited them once – getting high on whatever they were smoking and waking up the next day with two of them, naked and hungover wasn't exactly the way she'd intended to live the rest of her days. But if she could convince them to help…

She fished her phone out of her pocket, and checked the battery. After a full day of running around, it was almost dead. She'd figured she could charge it in Alex's lab. But she still had enough battery to make a few calls.

Alex glanced up at the sound of the keys being pressed, but didn't respond, and turned back to her research quickly. It seemed like she wanted to give Maggie distance – in _both_ senses of the word.

"Hey, Dave, it's me." Maggie said into the phone the second the man answered. "Where are you right now?"

Alex couldn't help but listen in to the one side of the conversation she heard.

"… Good. Listen, I need a huge favor. Yes, of course you're getting something in return… I'll let your buddy in Holding walk… I'm having a situation with an alien. Caveman. Toxin in his nails or something. And he bites. We can't detain him, we don't know anything about him."

Alex waited for a response, until she heard Maggie's grunt of defeat. "Okay, well, ask around. If you get me something within the hour, I'll wipe your record."

 _Could she really do that?_

She heard Maggie disconnect the call, and toss her phone onto the bed. Another frustrated growl finally made her look up. Maggie was biting her knuckle, and shaking her head. She glanced up to see Alex looking at her, and sighed. "Can you see where he is?"

Alex lowered the test tube she'd been holding and closed her eyes, trying to get into the same mindset as before, trying to see the monster once again.

But nothing came, and she was forced to shake her head. "I think he only shows me what he wants me to see."

"If it's that easy to kill humans, why didn't he just kill me when he had the chance…" Maggie grunted. As much as Alex _didn't_ want to go down that road, she couldn't help but agree.

"Maybe he wants something." She raised an eyebrow. "Pawns for his game."

"Planning world domination with just one alien seems highly unlikely." Maggie shook her head. "Plus, I saw the look in his eyes. He was scared and disoriented, he didn't know what he was waking up to."

Alex scoffed. "We don't know _anything_ about that species. You can't jump to him being scared – for all we know he wasn't even unaware to begin with. Maybe he was planning something all along."

Maggie admitted defeat, and looked away. But her brain was still trying to connect the dots. Why would he attack that many agents, aim to _kill_ , but leave both her and Alex relatively unharmed?

Biting, _marking_ her. Making Alex hurt her whenever she came close.

Maybe they were just overthinking it. Maybe he'd really been acting instinctively, and he felt like he was defending himself.

She remembered Alex telling her how Mon-El had reacted when he first came to Earth, attacking Kara only to run and escape, after waking up on a strange planet.

Maybe his comet hadn't even been aimed for Earth anyway. It was enough to make _herself_ question what she would do in that situation.

Not that she excused the bite mark – which still _stung like a bitch._

But Alex's immediate search for meaning behind the actions were in her opinion a bit too much. It was just a random attack, nothing more and nothing less. Getting paranoid now would do nothing about the situation.

Her girlfriend had gone back to her analysis of the samples, leaving Maggie in silence on the other side of the room once again.

She watched her work meticulously, handling the equipment with so much care that it almost seemed like she was caring for a child. The thought distracted her from the situation at least slightly.

But Alex's composure seemed _off_. There was something forced about the way she was sitting on the stool.

Until she finally noticed how Alex was mainly working with her left hand. While she knew that Alex was ambidextrous, she usually preferred her right hand for lab work.

Amongst other things.

But now, she saw Alex's right hand, tucked away underneath the table. When she moved to get a better angle, she saw how much it was trembling.

"Everything alright?" Maggie asked cautiously, not wanting to confront her immediately with what she found out. Alex would only shut her out if she got defensive about it.

"Yeah. Just work." Alex answered quickly, with a fleeting smile.

She wasn't a bad liar, but Maggie recognized evasion when she saw it.

She wanted to push, to get Alex to tell her what was going on, but the ringing of her phone turned both of their heads to the bed. She reached for it, and checked the caller ID, before accepting.

"Dave… What have you got?"

"… _I talked to Billie, she says you blew her off on drinks a few days ago."_

Maggie closed her eyes, wincing. "Yeah, sorry I was working. But…?"

" _Yeah, she said that a friend of hers was from a system that had a species that looked like cavemen. No idea what they're called."_

Maggie glanced up to meet Alex's eyes quickly. "And what do you know?"

" _Not much. They're very primal. Loads of aggression. Patriarchal and underdeveloped."_

"What about the abilities?"

" _She hadn't met any of them yet, but she heard something about connection. They share a mind, or something like that. Not exactly a hivemind, but enough to communicate danger and share information._ "

Maggie nodded slowly. "Okay. Thanks, Dave."

" _About that clean slate…"_

"Yeah, yeah. Consider it done." She disconnected, tucking her phone back in her back pocket.

A _lot_ of things were starting to make sense now.

Alex seeing the alien through his eyes. Being alerted when he was surrounded.

 _She just hoped that it didn't work both ways._

That solved one piece of the puzzle, but it certainly didn't explain everything. Absent-mindedly nursing the wound on her shoulder, she looked up at the sound of her girlfriend.

"Well?"

Maggie glanced up at Alex's worried expression. "When did your hand start trembling?"

"What?!" Alex was taken off guard. But Maggie didn't have the time or energy to repeat anything, so she settled on folding her arms. She knew that Alex had heard her.

"A… A few minutes ago."

"So, when the alien attacked the agents." Maggie concluded. "Which means he got hurt in the fight."

"What did they tell you? What's going on?"

Maggie put both hands on her waist, sighing. "Some sort of psychic connection. He marked you, now you're seeing through his eyes, sharing a communication bond with him."

Alex seemed repulsed at the idea. "So, the pain in my hand is because _he_ has pain in his hand?" _Like a human voodoo doll?!_ "Why would he do that?!"

"Well, he must have thought you liked him back." Maggie grunted sarcastically, before she cut herself off.

Realizing that she probably wasn't far off with the remark.

 _Patriarchal. Primitive._

"Oh, fuck…" She whispered, shaking her head. Alex still seemed lost, not having connected the dots.

Maggie turned around once again to face her, a look of fear now plastered on her face.

"Mags? W-what's..." Alex seemed scared to even ask at the serious expression on her girlfriend's face.

"… That thing branded you as his mate, Alex. And he's trying to take out the competition."

Alex's stomach dropped.


	5. Chapter 5

"Take out the…" Alex repeated slowly, before she finally understood what Maggie was implying. Eyes wide, she couldn't stop herself from slumping down onto the stool. "Oh god…"

"He's going to come back for you, Alex." Maggie said, a grave expression on her face. "…You need to get out of here."

"What about you?!" The agent shook her head immediately. The glass surrounding the med bay was bulletproof and reinforced. The alien wouldn't get them – or _her_ – in there.

Maggie chuckled weakly. "… I can't come close to you. Listen to me. _Hey_."

Finally, Alex lifted her head to look her girlfriend in the eyes, as Maggie took a shaky breath. "… We know you're not contagious. Get _out_ , Alex. Get to safety, make sure he can't hurt you."

" _No_ …" Alex whimpered, shaking her head. She already felt tears stinging at her eyes. "I'm _not_ going to leave you behind. We don't know what's wrong with you, I can't… No, Mags."

" _Damn_ it, Alex." Maggie panted, feeling herself getting worked up. "Please. _Please_ , for me."

Alex opened her mouth to protest, but saw the look on Maggie's face, and knew that something wasn't right at all. The detective was still breathing like she'd just sprinted across the room, her face distorted in a grimace. "Maggie?!"

" _Please_ …"

Alex shot up, but recoiled instantly. She couldn't be close to Maggie, it would kill her.

 _What was that fucking alien doing to her?!_

"It's _poison_." Maggie hissed through her teeth, clutching her shoulder.

Alex's heart stopped. "Babe?! Talk to me…"

"It burns, Alex… _shit_ …" Maggie grunted. "Stop… looking at me like that!"

"Like what?!" The agent asked, jumping up from the stool to take a few steps back, hoping that it would at least soothe the pain slightly. But it didn't seem effective, as Maggie was still breathing heavily. "He probably _knows,_ Alex… that you love me… That you _care._ Maybe it's… _ugh_ …"

"Mags!"

The detective looked up to meet her eyes. "Stop talking! Just… _pretend I'm not here_!"

Alex scoffed, her head clouded with concern. "How can you _ask_ that?! Maggie, you're…"

The chaos between the two of them died down instantly, when the loud alarm started blaring again, and the red emergency light shut down, leaving the entire room in darkness for all of three seconds.

Before the white fluorescent lights overhead buzzed on, and Alex had to shield her eyes against the burning. When she opened them again, she saw Maggie hunched over on the bed, clutching her shoulder.

The wound seemed even worse in normal lighting. Still bleeding, red and angry. Her training told her that it was probably infected, and that Maggie needed proper medical care.

But _she_ couldn't even touch her.

She ran to the touchpad near the door, careful to avoid coming close to the bed, and tapped the communicator, yelling above the alarm. "Winn, what's happening?!"

"He's breaching! He's on his way up to the floor of the command center, it's the evacuation alert! Every agent that's still inside the building is going to leave through the basement tunnel!"

"What?!" Alex shouted. "What about _us_?"

"Don't worry – the med bay is the safest place you can be right now. As soon as Kara returns, she'll take on the alien. I called Clark as well, he's on his way."

Alex grunted. "So, everyone is leaving?!"

She barely heard Winn's sigh over the blaring alarm. "... He killed three agents, Alex. Two others are badly injured. Even _J'onn_ couldn't beat him. If everyone stays here, it's just a matter of time until more people die. J'onn gave the evacuation signal, he's on the phone with president Marsdin."

"I'm… going to try something. Get out, Winn. But keep in touch."

"Yeah, of course. It should be another minute until everyone's out. J'onn is staying inside."

Alex pulled her finger off the touchpad, and kicked a nearby trashcan in frustration. She knew that Maggie was watching her, but stayed near the door, glancing through the glass into the corridor. "You want to _play,_ asshole? Let's play."

She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against the glass, trying to focus. But a few seconds later, she realized that it was useless.

 _He wasn't coming._

She ran towards the cupboards again, pulling out a still wrapped scalpel.

"Alex, what are you doing…?"

She ignored Maggie's confused question, putting the scalpel to the palm of her left hand, and pressing down. Maggie's eyes widened as she saw the blood appear. " _Alex!_ "

As the agent felt her blood drip down onto the floor, she ran back towards the door and raised her hand, pressing it against the glass. Her palm left a bloody stain, but she ignored the sting. _Waiting._

"Come on, come _on_ …"

"What the hell are you _planning?"_ Maggie's angry voice behind her. Alex turned her head, her hand still touching the door. The detective's furious scowl made her insides churn.

"You're trying tolure him here, _then what_?!" Maggie looked down, wincing. The outburst must be costing her a big amount of energy. "… You're going to kill him with that scalpel? I'd like to see you try, Danvers."

Alex was taken aback. Truth be told, she hadn't really thought about what to do if the alien _did_ show up. It was an impulse. Maggie had been right in calling her out on it, but it was also clear that her lover wasn't in the right mindset.

She lowered her hand, reaching for a box of gauze. As she fished a few out of the package, the alarm went silent once again. _Everyone was officially out._

Silently, she wrapped her hand. A part of her had hoped that the voodoo trick had worked in reverse as well. But apparently, since she hadn't been confronted with the alien in any way, shape or form, she assumed that it was another disappointment.

She was officially out of ideas. But this wasn't the end. It _couldn't_ be.

"He marked me because he wants me to be his mate." She stated, matter-of-factly. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw Maggie throw her head back in exasperation. "Yeah. I get it, Alex."

Alex sighed. A second later, another flash appeared in her head. The alien was in the command center, looking around at the emptiness around it. The screens were all black. The lockdown must have locked the server as well.

"He's close."

This grabbed Maggie's attention. The detective looked up. "Where?"

"The command center… He's looking for something." Alex pressed her now bandaged hand up against the glass once again.

" _Alex, Maggie_!"

The both of them looked up at the familiar voice blaring through the speaker of the med bay.

 _J'onn._

"I'm here." Alex said, as she pressed the talk button on the touchpad once again. "He's in the command center, J'onn."

"I know. Alex, you need to try and draw him out. I might have an idea, but I don't know if it'll work, and I need to sneak up on him. If we can get him to the med bay, I can try it!"

Alex took a shaky breath. "Yeah, okay. Stand-by."

She removed her finger from the touchpad once again, running her good hand through her hair. "Well, if the blood didn't capture his attention…"

Maggie didn't seem eager to join in on the brainstorm. Alex saw how pale she'd become, now that she was lying down onto her back once again. There was still a small amount of blood seeping through her shirt.

Realizing that she was on her own, her mind started racing. Trying to see the possibilities. Trying to _grasp_ at least what the situation had evolved to.

Until she finally realized what had to happen.

"Maggie?"

" _What_ , Alex?"

The agent winced at her girlfriend's standoffish tone. But she remembered that she was probably in a huge amount of pain right now, and Alex wasn't exactly being supportive. _Not that she could._

Though, she was about to make things way worse.

"I know how to lure the alien here, but I need your help."

Maggie lifted her head an inch off the bed to look at Alex.

"… If he really sees me as his mate, and he wants to take you out, then we need you antagonizing him to lure him here."

"Like what? Yelling stuff about his mother? I don't even know if that thing knows what that is, let alone _has_ one."

" _No_ , shut up. Just hear me out." Alex was getting frustrated at the lack of participation. She hadn't exactly planned on his happening either. Usually, Maggie was on the front line of figuring out what was happening. Hell, _she_ had figured the whole mating part out, but now the detective's mood had shifted so quickly that Alex didn't even know what had occurred.

They had to move forward; taking out the alien was the only way to get out of there alive. So she had to bite the bullet. "Mags, I need you to attack me. If we can make it look like you want to hurt me, he'll try to come to my rescue."

In one second, she saw a whirlwind of emotions passing on Maggie's face. Anger. Fear. Disgust.

"H-how can you even _ask_ me that, Danvers…"

"I'm not asking you to. There's no other way. Unless you have one…?"

When Maggie stayed silent, Alex took it as a sign of compliance. "I know it's going to hurt. For the both of us. But we need to. J'onn can capture it, but he needs to flank it. We're the distraction."

"I'm not going to punch you or hit you."

"Just shove me like you did earlier." Alex said quickly. It was out before she realized what she'd said exactly, and the look of disgust on Maggie's face was completely her fault.

She'd fucked up.

"I… You… You think I don't… I…" Maggie could barely get the words out, her voice thick with sadness and tears. She was _exhausted_.

"I'm sorry. I didn't- I didn't mean to." Alex looked down. "Mags, _please._ I love you, you won't hurt me."

"But _you will_." Maggie whispered.

And honestly – Alex had forgotten about that fact completely.

"I know you're angry at me. You have every right to be. I was an ass to you yesterday, and I _can't_ believe we have to do it, but-…"

She trailed off when she saw Maggie jumping off the bed. She had to stop herself from rushing to her aid when she saw her stumble, almost losing her balance.

Maggie was in a bad way. The blood loss, the infection, the exhaustion… Alex cursed herself for not being able to be there for her as she watched her suffer. It hurt her, to the core of her own being, to see her like this.

But she shoved her concerns aside momentarily, when Maggie took a few steps in her direction, and almost crumpled to her knees. The pain was returning; Alex could see it on her face. But she needed physical contact to send the psychic message to the alien that she was in trouble.

If that was even how it worked.

"Come on…" She whispered, more to herself than to Maggie. But when it was clear that Maggie wasn't in any state to come at her at all, Alex knew she had to make a haunting decision.

One apologetic look at the woman she loved – that she hoped would still love her back after this – and she ran. Towards her, wrapping her arms around her and taking her to the ground.

Maggie's screaming in her ear almost deafened her.

But she was sure she hadn't imagined the loud footsteps coming their way.


	6. Chapter 6

A pounding on the door of the med bay made Alex snap her head up.

 _Thank god._

The alien was growling, its fists punching the glass fruitlessly and watching her with wide eyes. He raised a hand, the missing nail on his finger now painfully obvious, and pointed at her.

Though she paid for the momentary distraction – Maggie crawled away from her, tears streaming down her face and still whimpering. Alex had shut out the crying, but it all rushed back to her. The fight couldn't have lasted for more than five seconds, but the damage was done.

She got to her feet and walked towards the door, as she felt a strange feeling overtake her. The sight of the strong, brave alien standing in front of her, gazing at her with such soft, loving eyes. She glanced down to his bare chest. Muscled, powerful…

 _She wanted to touch him so bad. To show him how much she cared for him._

The alien glanced to the side, where the touch panel was. Alex nodded wordlessly – she needed to be there with him. Get that glass between the two of them gone for good.

"Alex?" She heard Maggie's strained voice behind her. "What are you _doing_?!"

But Alex ignored her, reaching for the panel. The alien watched as she was trying to override the quarantine protocol with a few taps, and her thumbprint.

"Don't _do_ it!" Maggie yelled, now desperate. "Alex! Listen to me!"

Before Alex could finalize the override, though, the alien was tackled to the ground by a blur of gray and green. Her eyes widened, as she felt herself being shoved onto the ground too.

"NO!" She screamed, crawling to her feet quickly to punch against the door. "Don't _hurt_ him!"

Maggie was frozen, as she watched Alex plead. But J'onn – _she assumed it was J'onn_ – couldn't hear her, as he delivered another couple of punches to the alien. Alex falling to her knees, clutching her chest, clutching her abdomen…

"J'onn, _stop!_ Please!" Maggie now yelled too, running towards the touchpad. The adrenalin pumping through her veins muted the burning that spread through her body once again. "You're _killing_ her! J'ONN!"

The Martian didn't respond. Alex was down on her knees, panting.

"Alex!" Maggie switched tactics. If she couldn't get J'onn to stop, she had to focus on her girlfriend. "Alex, babe, listen to my voice. Breathe. Come on, just breathe through it, it'll be over soon!"

" _No_..." Alex whimpered.

Maggie took a step in her direction, but Alex raised a weak hand. "Stay _away_ from me! Only _he_ can touch me!"

"He?!" Maggie repeated incredulously. "Who the hell is-…" She cut herself off, because she already knew the answer. Now that Alex and the alien had finally made eye-contact, it must have set something off. A chemical reaction. _Something._

 _Alex was gone._

But she wasn't going to give up on her. "Babe-…"

"Don't call me that." Alex spat, her eyes narrowing at the sight of Maggie standing frozen next to the bed.

"- _Alex._ " Maggie tried again. "He's controlling you. You need to snap out of it-…"

Another blow on the alien from J'onn, and Alex's neck snapped to the side in return. Maggie grimaced in sympathy. "You can't let him win this. I _love_ you, Alex. You need to come back to me."

" _Maggie_!" J'onn's strained voice through the intercom. He must have been wearing an earpiece. Maggie ran towards the touchpad, and tapped it. "J'onn, _stop_! You're hurting Alex, it's some sort of psychic connection!"

Immediately, J'onn stopped attacking. But in return, the alien didn't hesitate in throwing a powerful punch, sending the Martian flying through the wall of the building. When he spoke next, his voice was filled with pain. "Kara is on her way with Kal, but the Fortress had nothing on the alien. Winn said you had something…?"

"Yes…" Maggie shut her eyes, trying to think through the pain that was rushing through every inch of her body. If she gave in to it now, the both of them would _never_ get out alive. "We can't kill the alien, because he's connected to her. He marked her, and he's pushing me away because he wants her all to himself."

"Any suggestions on how to beat it, then?" Both Kryptonians' powers would be useless if they couldn't use them to detain the alien. They had to play it smart. But time was running out.

 _Patriarchal, primitive…_ She had to think. The thing was acting almost wolf-like, a mate…

 _Wolf._

Suddenly, she knew what to do.

"J'onn!" She yelled, running to get as close to him as possible, through the glass of the bay. She whispered her plan quickly, so that neither Alex nor the alien would hear her. If Alex really was brainwashed, she could warn him.

J'onn's eyes widened at hearing her plan. "That's a _huge_ risk…"

"I know." Maggie nodded. "I'll take it, if it gets Alex back."

"Maggie…"

"No." She shook her head. "I don't want to hear it. Just… get ready."

J'onn nodded, and with one last glance back at the alien, the both of them moved towards the door. They knew it was only a matter of time until the alien realized what they were doing.

" _Now_!" Maggie yelled. J'onn tapped the touchpad on his side of the door, overruling the quarantine with a press of his thumb. As the door slid open with a loud _beep_ , Alex's head snapped up. "What are you doing…?"

Maggie ignored it, jumping out of the med bay and rolling to the ground as she landed. J'onn closed the door behind her immediately, and locked the doors once again. Alex shot up, and pounded on the door. "No! _J'onn_! Don't leave me here! I need to get out! J'ONN!"

The alien growled protectively at the sight of Alex screaming. Maggie glanced up. "Run."

J'onn turned around, and ran towards the command center, turning the corner and leaving Maggie alone with him.

"Don't hurt him, you _bitch_!" Alex yelled. As much as she willed herself not to think about it, Alex's anger still hurt like a punch in the face.

"Hey! Idiot!" Maggie screamed, her shoulder throbbing painfully as she moved her arms in a fighting stance. "She's _never_ going to love you! She loves me!"

The alien cracked its neck, and roared as he ran up her. Maggie took a few steps backwards, until she was sure that he was focusing on her instead of Alex.

After that, she ran.

She sprinted until she was sure her lungs would collapse, as she reached the deserted command center. The screens off, the lights buzzing overhead, but with nobody there, completely eerie.

She stopped and turned around as she reached the table, to put something physical between them.

 _She prayed the plan would work._

"That's right, asshole." She growled at him. "She loves _me_ , not you. You'll _never_ have her. She's _mine_."

The alien snarled dangerously, but Maggie couldn't back down. She had to stay strong.

"Maggie!" Her name was yelled from the stairs by a familiar voice. Both her and the alien looked up to see Alex running down the steps, and falling in her arms. "I was so worried, I'm _sorry,_ I don't know what came over me!"

"Alex…" Maggie sighed in relief, running over to wrap her arms around her and kiss her on the lips passionately. The alien growled angrily once again, and lunged at Maggie.

As she dove behind the table, she felt one of his hands clasp around her ankle.

 _Shit_.

She was pulled back into the center of the room forcefully, as the alien leapt on top of her and screeched.

 _Shit. Shit._

She saw J'onn – as Alex – moving up to hold the alien in a chokehold, but he growled and threw him out of his neck. Maggie watched as Alex's figure crashed into the table, shattering it upon impact.

The alien moved in on her, opening its mouth to reveal the sharp teeth that had bit not even an hour ago. She whimpered, and realized that it was the end.

 _I'm sorry, Alex. I'm sorry I couldn't save you._

The alien moved closer, and pinned her down to the ground with its arms, its face burying itself in her neck.

She closed her eyes, a loud scream escaping her involuntarily, as she felt the pressure on her neck.

Before the alien froze completely.

She willed herself to stay as still as possible, praying that it would be over soon. That nobody would let Alex see her body like that, her throat ripped to pieces, bleeding all over the command center floor…

But the impact never came.

She opened her eyes at the sound of quick footsteps, and a choked gasp.

The alien in front of her was frozen in ice completely. And looking up, she saw the source.

Kara and Kal, running towards her. They must have both used their freeze breath to stop him.

"Maggie!" Kara's concerned voice filled her ears, as the blonde kneeled by her side. Together with Kal, she pulled the frozen alien off of her. "Did he get you?!"

"I…" Maggie stammered. She wasn't even sure. But when Kara didn't seem completely shocked at the state she was in, Maggie assumed they'd gotten there right on time. But then, Kara's eyes caught something different – Alex, lying on the shattered table, seemingly unconscious.

" _Alex!_ " She yelled desperately, running to her side. But in front of her eyes, the agent shifted back into Hank Henshaw, groaning weakly as he turned to lie on his side.

Kal helped Maggie up, checking her over. "Are you okay, detective Sawyer?"

"Just… get that _thing_ to a cell where it can't hurt anyone." Maggie panted, waving in the direction of the alien. The burning in her shoulder was still there, but it didn't hurt nearly as much as before. She'd gotten numb.

Kal nodded, and pulled the iced alien into his arms, speeding off to the holding cells. Kara ran to check on J'onn and help him to his feet.

"Alex…" He muttered weakly.

Maggie's eyes widened, as she got up to her feet and ran back to the med bay, after yelling " _Override the system_!" over her shoulder.

Now that the adrenalin of the fight and the prospect of dying was wearing off, she felt herself slow down. Her heart was pounding, and her lungs were screaming in protest. She lost speed, and was reduced to stumbling around the corner.

The door unlocked itself just as she was about to enter.

"We got him, babe, we-…"

She cut herself off immediately, as her heart jumped.

Alex, lying in the center of the room, on her side and facing Maggie. Her eyes were closed, and her complexion was pale. Deadly pale.

Her lips were blue.

Maggie's world stopped, as she screamed her lover's name.


	7. Chapter 7

"No. No, no… _no_ …" Maggie whimpered, as she rushed into the room.

Sure enough, the pain had not diminished. The second she reached for her, the splitting headache returned, making Maggie's knees buckle. She tumbled to the ground, but willed herself to crawl closer to Alex, screaming hysterically. "NO! _NO! ALEX_ "

Alex didn't move. She couldn't even tell if she was breathing or not. Maggie's sobs echoed off the walls as her head dropped to the ground in defeat. " _Please…_ "

The room stayed dead silent, apart from the buzzing of the now re-activated air conditioning, and the loud crying.

Someone must have heard her screams, because Maggie vaguely recognized the sound of footsteps over her own hysterics. A strangled gasp above her.

"She's _dead_ , she's _dead_ …" Like a mantra. She'd lost Alex to the alien. And now, she'd lost her forever. No more firsts. Every single thing they'd done had been their last instead.

And the last thing they'd done was fight. The last words she'd heard were words of love for that monster. The last touch they'd shared was nothing but pain.

"Maggie." The voice above her sounded familiar. But the detective was too far gone in her own mind to respond to it.

She felt a pair of strong hands lift her off the ground, pulling her away from Alex's lifeless body.

"NO!" She screamed, thrashing around. "Let _go_ of me! _Alex_!"

The grip on her waist was too strong to fight, but she wasn't giving up. They _couldn't_ pull her away. As much as it hurt, she needed to hold her. To tell Alex that she was _sorry,_ for ruining everything they had. For making a mistake in luring the alien away. For… _everything_.

She never even got to say goodbye.

Numbly, she felt her captor pull her out of the med bay. The second she stopped protesting, she went completely limp – all of her energy drained because her heart felt like it was ripped in half.

" _Maggie_." The same voice as before.

She was breathing heavily; on the verge of passing out. Something wet was trickling down her arm; the wound must have started bleeding again because of all her movements.

The only thing she could do through the short and weak breaths was whisper her lover's name.

Numb to the rest of the world, she felt the darkness pull her in.

Seconds later, it overtook her completely.

* * *

"Maggie. _Maggie_ …"

 _No_.

She cracked an eye open weakly, wincing against the sharp light in the room. A loud beeping coming from her left side distracted her, as her eyes flitted towards it slowly. Everything was blurry and vague.

"Maggie?"

She finally turned to the source of the name being called, and found a figure sitting next to her bed with a worried frown.

 _Kara_.

In her civilian outfit, and looking like she'd been crying for the past hours. Red and puffy eyes, and smeared make-up. But she managed a watery smile, and a squeeze of Maggie's hand in hers. "Hey…"

Maggie stayed silent at first, looking around the room. She was surprised to find herself in the med bay once again – the entire room now forever engraved in her mind with sadness, despair and death.

 _Death._

Tears formed in her eyes again, as everything rushed back to her. The alien, the psychic connection. Alex…

 _Alex._

 _Death._

"I'm… _so sorry_ , Kara." Maggie managed to whisper, as the first tear slipped its way down her cheek. "I… I should have… I…"

She didn't even know where to start apologizing to the woman in front of her. She'd cost Kara her sister – the one person in Kara's life who had always been there for her, and had her back.

As much as Maggie loved – _had loved_ – Alex, she knew that she'd broken the bond between Kara and her completely. And that Kara would never forgive her for it.

She expected Kara to yell. To scream, to hit her.

Of course she ruined everything. What else was new? She really should have seen it coming. All of her relationships ended because of her own hardheadedness, her ridiculous risk-taking, and her selfish behavior.

And now, Alex was dead.

Instead, Kara smiled weakly, and ran her thumb across Maggie's hand. "When… When me and Kal arrived into the command center… That alien was on top of you. J'onn-…" Kara chuckled humorlessly. "…- I thought he was Alex, she looked unconscious. But you… You were about to get your throat ripped out. So, I… I _acted_. And Kal did the same."

Maggie waited patiently for Kara to finish her story. The blonde was allowed to confront Maggie with how much she'd failed. Maggie just had to take it, a fresh set of tears spilling down her cheeks.

"… It was instinct. Winn had _told_ us about the psychic bond with Alex – J'onn had briefed him. And we just… _forgot_. Because we weren't thinking."

 _Of course_. Kara had wanted to save Maggie, and it had cost her the life of her sister.

Maggie clenched her eyes shut, not willing to let more tears fall, and hissed through her teeth. "It should have killed me."

"No. No, Maggie." Kara shook her head. "Don't say that, _please_."

It was clear that Kara was still highly emotional. Maggie didn't know how long she'd been out, or what had happened in that space. Where they'd moved Alex's body to.

The blonde pressed her lips together. "When he bit you, he released some type of venom. Poison, Maggie. We still haven't figured out what it is, so you'll need to stay here until we do."

"I don't care, Kara." Maggie whispered, shaking her head weakly. "How can you even _look_ at me."

"What?" The heroine tilted her head. "Maggie, what are you talking about?!"

"I _ruined_ everything." Maggie cried. "… If I hadn't been there, if I hadn't tried to run and lure the alien, she would still be alive…"

"Who would-…" Kara started to ask, before she cut herself off. "No, no, Maggie… Listen to me."

Maggie felt a finger underneath her chin, as Kara gently tilted her head up to look her in the eyes.

"Alex is _alive_ , Maggie."

The detective was sure she'd misheard her. Alex _couldn't_ be alive. It was just a cruel trick her ears were playing on her – hearing what she wanted to hear. Because she'd _seen_ her. And she looked very much dead.

When Kara saw that Maggie wasn't convinced, she scooted closer to the bed. "I heard you scream and I ran towards you. She was unconscious, and her body temperature was low – she was hypothermic. Hamilton took care of her, but we couldn't get her temperature up." Kara took a shaky breath, as she obviously relived the experience. "… She _was_ dying. But then, J'onn remembered what you'd told him. About the psychic connection between the alien and her."

Maggie tried not to think about Alex. The thought of her only made everything hurt more.

Kara needed to get to her point, and fast.

"… We went back to the alien. He's in an isolation cell downstairs." Kara glanced back at the door. "He was still frozen, so we unfroze him with our heat vision, and Alex was stable again a few minutes after that."

Maggie dropped her head against the pillow, lightheaded with relief. "Oh god… she's… she's not dead…" She glanced up at Kara weakly. "I… I need to see her, Kara."

Kara winced. "Well, we haven't been able to fix the issue yet, Maggie. The bond is still there, so Alex…"

Maggie swallowed thickly. Kara didn't need to finish the sentence.

 _Alex is still in love with the alien. And it would still hurt to come close to her._

At least she was alive.

She'd give up everything she and Alex ever had if it meant keeping Alex alive. That was the only thing she knew for sure.

She moved to sit a bit more upright in the hospital bed, but found soon enough that her shoulder throbbed painfully. Kara noticed her flinch immediately, and raced to her aid. "Easy, easy… Don't move around too much."

Maggie had heard those words too many times in the past 24 hours.

"How long have I been out, then? And where's Alex?!"

"It's the middle of the night." Kara sighed, running her free hand through her hair. "At least six hours. But Hamilton said that it was good; your body is trying to fight off the infection – or _something_. That's why you weren't waking up."

Somehow, Maggie doubted that her human body would be strong enough to fight off some psychic caveman-like alien's poison.

But that didn't answer the other half of her question.

Kara caught her questioning gaze, and continued. "… Alex has been in the other lab. She was cleared physically a while ago, and she's working on a cure."

Maggie scoffed. Of _course_ Alex would get right back to work the second anybody came even remotely close to clearing her for work.

"Hamilton is watching her closely, though." Kara added quickly. "There's enough distance between the alien and her, but we're not sure if it still has any impact. We can't sedate the alien, because that would probably mean that she's down too…"

"If she's working on a cure, doesn't that mean she's snapped out of her love for him? If she wants to help me…?"

It sounded hopeful and vulnerable, and Maggie _hated_ the way the question lingered at the end. But Kara adjusted her glasses.

"Right, uh, well, Hamilton's hypothesis right now is that the attraction gets more intense the closer she is to the alien. So because they're so far away, the… _urge_ to be with him is less… there."

Maggie finally started to realize how complicated the situation really was. The second they touched the alien, Alex would be a victim. And they couldn't do any tests, because Alex could snap and become entranced with the alien all over again.

"She's been here a few times while you were out. But she didn't want to come closer than the doorway. It's been a while though, maybe they're onto something."

Kara seemed to be done talking for the moment, and glanced at her nervously, like she wasn't sure what to expect from her. When Maggie shot a tired smile her way, she seemed a bit more at ease. "How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted. But I can't go back to sleep."

With all the revelations of the past few minutes, the last thing on her mind was sleeping. Alex was _alive_. They still had a shot at all of their firsts.

 _Maybe they would be okay._

"You should at least get some rest. I'll call Hamilton and tell her you're awake. She'll come in and do some more tests, probably."

"Thank you, Kara." Maggie said. The sincerity was obvious in her voice, and Kara seemed to understand the deeper meaning behind the words.

 _Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for saving Alex. Thank you for not blaming me._

As Kara walked out the door, Maggie collapsed back against the bed, finally allowing herself to relax.

Her shoulder was starting to numb. Or maybe it was just the pain dulling her senses.

Maybe she was dying after all.

She looked around, trying to locate her cellphone. She spotted it next to her leather jacket, shirt and shoes on the counter. She glanced down at her body, sighing in relief when she noticed that they'd at least kept her black tank top and pants on.

For the first time, she also felt an itching in her nose, and raised her hand. They'd given her a nasal cannula, probably to increase her oxygen intake. She pulled all of the wires and electrodes connected to her body off, and swung her legs off the bed.

She carefully pulled herself off the bed. She was still dizzy and weak, and she felt the pounding in her head return, but she _had_ to reach her phone.

A few experimental baby steps, until she finally felt confident enough to shuffle towards the corner. She reached the counter, and grabbed her phone off the pile of clothes, returning to the bed to sit upright.

As she swiped through her contacts, trying to find the right person to call, something else drew her attention.

"… _hey_."

Maggie looked up at the voice. She was glad she wasn't connected to monitors anymore, because she's sure they'd have gone haywire in that moment.

Standing in the doorway, bags under her eyes and looking paler than usual but _alive, so alive._

"Alex…"


	8. Chapter 8

"How are you feeling?" Was the first thing Alex said, as she lingered in the doorway.

Maggie swallowed thickly. Her mind was racing. " _Alex_ …"

The agent smiled weakly, as she glanced down to stare at the ground. Maggie glanced up and down Alex's form, trying to remember every single inch of her body. It was silent for a while, as neither woman really knew what to say.

"You're uh…" Maggie finally whispered, as she tried to regain some of her composure. "… You're working on a cure?"

"Yeah. The whole team's working on it." Alex nodded quickly.

Threatening to fall into awkward silence once again, Maggie finally took a deep breath, and addressed the elephant in the room. "Can we _please_ talk about what happened? All of it?"

"There's nothing to talk about." Alex dismissed quickly. But Maggie was having none of it.

"You _know_ that's not true. We… we won't be okay until we do."

"I should, uh…" Alex sniffed, glancing back into the hallway. "I should get back to work. I just… figured I'd come see for myself if you were alright."

"Don't _do_ this." Maggie pleaded, looking at the woman she loved. "Please, don't walk away."

"I'll send Hamilton in to check on you."

"Alex!" Maggie yelled as she watched the agent walk away, but she knew that she wasn't coming back.

That alien still had her in his power. There was no other way. Maggie _heard_ that the love in Alex's voice that had been there before was completely gone. This was distant, cold, and polite at best.

This wasn't Alex.

With teary eyes, she reached for her phone and dialed Dave again. It was the middle of the night, but that damn junkie would be up anyway.

" _Heyyy, Maggie._ "

"Is Billie there?" Maggie didn't waste time exchanging pleasantries and greetings. She heard a sigh on the other side of the line. "… _I'll look for her_. _Have you talked to your buddies yet?_ "

"Yes." Maggie said, lying quickly. "Wiped slate, Dave. You can start all over again, dealing alien drugs and getting high on life."

" _Good. Here, I found her_."

Some murmuring Maggie couldn't understand, and then a female voice spoke. " _Hello?_ "

"Billie, it's Maggie. Hey, I-…"

" _Mags! Hey babe, when are we going for drinks?_ "

The detective rolled her eyes. "Billie, you know that alien I asked about? The caveman?"

" _Oh, yeah, the brute one? What about it?_ "

"I need to know what kind of powers he has. How we can reverse it. Can you talk to your friend?"

" _Well, I haven't talked to her in about a week, she's off somewhere visiting family."_

Maggie closed her eyes, already disliking where the conversation was going. "Billie, that alien bit me, and we think it's venom. I might _die_. He marked my girlfriend as his mate and he's trying to get rid of me…" She sighed. "Billie, I'm _scared_ , alright? Can you _please_ …" She trailed off. She'd let her guard down for the first time since it happened and it felt horrible and uncomfortable. But she also needed to stress just how dangerous and urgent the situation was.

"Oh… _god_." She heard Billie's shocked voice. "I-I'll call her, Mags. I'll get her on a line with you. Just hold on, okay? You'll be fine."

Maggie disconnected, the ghost of a smile on her lips. Billie may be a poor, addicted no-lifer that she couldn't rely on, but she _was_ a friend.

The next few hours were hauntingly slow. Between Maggie's inability to go back to sleep, and Hamilton coming in every fifteen minutes to check on her, there was nothing she could do but lie back, stare at the ceiling and wait.

"We pulled Alex off the research." The doctor mentioned when she was checking Maggie's blood pressure for what felt like the thousandth time that night. Maggie glanced up as she watched Hamilton write down numbers with a marker on the glass wall. "Why?"

The woman lowered the marker back onto the nearby counter, and took a seat on the rolling stool next to her, grabbing a stethoscope. "Take a few deep breaths."

Maggie complied, as she studied her face. She put the instrument away, before turning to her. "She's exhausted. Physically and mentally. I asked Kara to take her home to get some rest." She reached for a needle, and started drawing more blood from a vein on Maggie's arm. The detective winced as it pierced her skin. "So… she's gone?"

"She'll be heading out soon, she's finishing up. I hope that my distance theory proves right." Hamilton frowned as she watched the container fill with Maggie's blood. "The further she's away from him, the weaker the bond. Hopefully she'll get some rest and not do anything crazy. Kara will watch her, I trust her. And the further she's away from you, the better your progress, from what I can tell."

It was quiet for a bit, but there was one question lingering in the back of her mind, ever since she'd woken up.

"What if we never find a cure…?"

The realist in her was surfacing again. They didn't know _anything_ about the alien, let alone how to reverse his actions. And by the time Billie would have found her friend, it could already be too late.

"We've always figured something out." Hamilton replied after thinking about her answer. "Maybe things won't be like they were before, but at least you'll both be alive and okay."

Maggie appreciated that answer. The doctor didn't sugarcoat it. Didn't lie to ease her mind.

If they didn't find a cure, she and Alex would never be able to see one another again. That was the price. The gamble.

Hamilton mumbled something about using Maggie's blood for a new analysis, but Maggie barely heard her. She leaned back once again, the blood loss making her lightheaded, and stared up at the dimmed lights above her.

A world without Alex in it, was a world she didn't want to live in. She'd die before she'd watch that alien take her along as his mate.

She probably would.

* * *

"Hey, Al." Kara knocked at the door to her sister's lab, and pushed it open gently. Her sister was hunched over a microscope, and writing something down blindly with her left hand.

When she didn't reply, Kara crossed her arms and waited. "Amelia asked me to take you home. She said you needed some more space between you and the alien."

"I'm fine."

"Well, it wasn't a question."

Alex looked up tiredly, and tilted her head. "I'm helping them find the cure, what else do they want?"

"For you to be okay, obviously." Kara scoffed, as she took a few steps to get closer to her sister. "You need rest. You've been awake too long, you're not thinking straight. And if you don't come along with me, I'll _drag_ you out of here. Don't think I won't."

Alex stopped her movements, and glanced back to look the blonde in the eyes. "I'm not… finding anything, Kara. And I, I don't even _want_ to. I don't know what's happening…" she glanced down at her own hands. "I just have this feeling… that I shouldn't be looking to help her."

"That's the alien talking." Kara shook her head. "Alex, you _love_ Maggie. You've been in love with her for the past months. You want to marry her. Don't you remember all the things the both of you did?"

Alex balled her hands into fists, trying to follow what her sister was saying. Trying to remember all of the beautiful times the both of them had experienced.

Kara seemed to notice her struggle, and watched silently as Alex looked up. "I… I hurt her, didn't I?"

The blonde put a hand on her shoulder carefully. "Let's just go home, okay? You can come back in the morning, after you've gotten some rest."

Avoiding the question. Admitting Alex's guilt. The agent knew that her sister was a horrible liar, but it hurt like a blow to the gut.

"You… go on ahead. I'll take the Ducati." Alex nodded slowly. "Take the long road, clear my head."

Kara's eyes softened, but she gave Alex space and stepped back towards the door. "I'll be waiting at yours. Don't take too long."

Alex watched her sister walk out of her lab, and tilted her head to crack her neck. She left her work on the table, switched off the light, and locked the door to her lab.

As she passed by the med lab on her way out, she saw Maggie lying awake and staring up.

She'd ruined it. Everything they had. If she'd restrained the alien more carefully. If she'd pulled Maggie away sooner…

Something stirred inside her. She had to _end_ this. Before the alien took more victims than the dead agents already on her conscience, before Maggie _died_ because of his poison.

 _She_ was responsible. And she was the one that needed to finish it.

Instead of walking out of the DEO, she took the stairs down to the basement, and flipped the light on.

Cold, calculated steps.

Her head was already garbling with new thoughts, as she tried to resist the infectious fantasies drifting inside her mind now that she was getting closer.

But she had to.

 _For Maggie._ The last thing she could do to save the woman she'd caused that much pain.

Shielding herself from the invasive thoughts with the memories of Maggie's smile. Of the times they'd shared together, of everything that she loved about the woman lying in the hospital bed a few floors above her.

She pulled her gun out of its holster, and opened the cell door in front of her with a swipe on the touchpad on the wall.

The alien, she assumed he'd been sleeping, looked up. His eyes widened when he saw her, as he stumbled to his feet.

She raised the gun, knowing that it was the last thing she'd ever do.

 _Keep Maggie safe._

"You'll _never_ have me."

The gunshot echoed through the building, as the alien dropped to the ground, his brain now splattered against the glass behind him.

She fell to her knees, and sagged forward, hitting the concrete floor.

 _Keep Maggie safe._

She hoped her lover would forgive her.


	9. Chapter 9

Maggie looked up from her fixed spot at the ceiling when a loud bang echoed through the med bay. She glanced to the door, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What the…"

 _It sounded like a gunshot_.

Maybe the alien had broken out of its containment. It wouldn't be the first time, she thought to herself.

She moved to sit upright, ignoring the pain shooting through her protesting and sore body. At the DEO, nobody fired a shot unless they were ordered to, or in danger. She was familiar with the concept; the second a bullet was fired from her own gun, she practically had to write a two-page essay on why she fired it.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed, disconnecting her monitors once again. She was about to jump off the bed, when she saw a group of three armed agents running through the corridor in front of her.

The door to her left opened, and Hamilton entered the room. Maggie immediately sensed that something was off. The doctor appeared nervous, but with a mask of professionalism that she recognized in herself. That she'd had to wear all too many times before.

"What's going on?" Maggie asked. She didn't want to tiptoe around it. Hamilton had been blunt with her before. If the alien was loose, she wanted to know.

 _Needed_ to know.

"Nothing." Hamilton shook her head as she resumed her tests. The detective wasn't satisfied with the answer though. "I heard a gunshot."

"We all did." The doctor replied. "Probably someone in the armory. Don't worry about it. How are you feeling?"

"Uh…My head hurts more than before. But the rest is the same."

Hamilton nodded. "Your blood pressure is a bit lower too. Not immediately concerning, but…"

"Probably because of all the blood you've been taking." Maggie raised an eyebrow. "You guys have been draining me all evening."

"I just took four tubes, that would hardly be noticeable." Hamilton frowned. Maggie chuckled weakly. "Yeah, you took four, that other guy took eight."

"What other guy?"

Maggie dropped her amused face when she noticed that the woman was completely confused. "Uh… the other guy in the lab coat? Short, brown hair, tan, thirties?"

Hamilton moved to the glass panel with the writing, and read through it. "There's nothing here of another blood draw. If I'd known I would never have drawn new blood that quickly."

"What does that mean?" Maggie asked, a doubt creeping in her mind. She didn't like jumping to worst case scenarios, but the things that came to mind weren't exactly comforting.

"It's probably just somebody from bio that forgot to write it down. I'll go check. In the meantime, don't move around. I've seen you walking all over the med bay, I'm serious. _Stay put_."

"Yes, doc." Maggie complied, resting her head back on the pillows behind her. She couldn't help but speculate about who would have drawn her blood, and why.

* * *

"And?"

"No change in her condition." Hamilton said, as she entered the command center. "Which means that your hypothesis was wrong, J'onn."

" _Damn it_." The Martian slammed his fist against the table, cracking it. He ran a hand over his head in frustration. "What the _hell_ happened, Amelia?!"

"Alex must have thought that it was the only way. Killing him and sacrificing herself along with it." Hamilton looked down, an immense sadness in her eyes.

J'onn glanced up. "Did you tell her?"

"Of course not." Hamilton grunted. "She's unstable enough as it is. Somebody from bio has been drawing her blood without my knowledge, her blood pressure dropped. She's getting worse, sir. Telling her now would devastate her."

The both of them looked up at three agents running up with a stretcher. A motionless and way too pale Alex on top of it, with closed eyes.

J'onn had to fight the tears threatening to spill. "She _had_ to know there was another way…"

"Is there?" Amelia chuckled humorlessly. "Nobody has been able to fix it."

J'onn admitted defeat. "I want the camera footage from that alien's cell-…" He trailed off, watching Alex's body on the gurney. _This_ wasn't how Alex died. It couldn't be.

The daughter he never had here on Earth. He couldn't lose her.

 _God_ , Kara and Maggie would be devastated.

"We're going to keep this quiet for now, especially for detective Sawyer." He ordered at the handful of agents surrounding him.

"What about Kara?" Amelia asked. "I told her to take Alex home, she'll _know_ something's wrong."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Are you sure?" Hamilton didn't look convinced. "If she'll come here and she's the last one to know…"

She didn't want to meet Kara's fury head-on when the blonde discovered that her sister was dead.

"Take her away, please." J'onn said to the three agents, motioning to the stretcher. "Put her in the morgue. Do _not_ …" He glared at them. "…pass by the med bay."

"Yes, sir."

"There's no way to fix this." He whispered to himself. Death was irreversible, he knew that.

Alex Danvers was no more.

"Take care of Maggie." Was all J'onn said to Amelia, before he followed the stretcher down the hallway, into the small dark room that functioned as the DEO's morgue.

Already filled with the body bags of the other three agents that the alien had murdered. A full morgue. People that sacrificed their lives to ensure that others would live.

Heroes, all of them.

And now, in the center, an agent that had given more than she'd ever had, for the love of her life.

As soon as J'onn closed the door behind him to get some privacy, he broke down. Loud sobs wrecked his body, as he fell to his knees in front of her.

They hadn't even covered her up with a body bag.

"Alex…" He cried, reaching for her hand. "I'm _sorry_ … I'm _so sorry_ …"

He leaned forward, resting his forehead on the stretcher. "I couldn't… I couldn't _save you_ …"

After a few minutes of hysterical crying, he managed to get his breathing under control, at least slightly. "I'm going to take care of Kara and Maggie, Alex. I _promise_. Nobody's going to hurt them."

He wiped at his eyes, but found his hand coated in something wet. He pulled it back and stared at it, seeing that his hand was covered in blood.

He frowned. Alex didn't appear to be bleeding from her head. He checked, running a hand through her hair, but finding it completely dry.

Confused, he moved down. He'd been holding her hand. He tilted her arm towards him, and found to his shock that her entire right hand was coated in blood.

Too much to be from a cut. It was almost like it had been soaked.

He wiped as much of it away as he could, trying to find the origin, an injury on her hand or arm, maybe a vein that had been cut…

He found nothing. Her hand was completely fine.

A second later, he jumped backwards in fear.

Because Alex's body had just jolted upright.

J'onn was nailed to the ground, as he watched Alex's eyes, looking around.

 _How was she alive?!_

She glanced down at the body bags surrounding her, her eyes widening in fear. Until she noticed J'onn, half lying, half sitting on the concrete floor, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

He _had_ seen a ghost.

"J'onn…" Alex whispered, seeming surprised herself that she'd actually woken up. "What…?"

"You're… you're _alive_." J'onn replied incredulously. "You shot that alien through his head…"

Alex frowned, looking like she was trying to remember what had happened.

Until her face broke into a wide grin, and she sagged back in relief. "It worked!"

" _What_ worked?!" J'onn was agitated, trying to make sense of the resurrection he'd just witnessed.

Alex glanced down at the blood wiped off her palm. "I… I had a theory, but I was afraid to test it."

J'onn stumbled to his feet to stand next to her stretcher, and listened intensely to what she was about to say.

"I… remember thinking that maybe he didn't mark me in the med bay." Alex frowned. "I thought maybe… maybe he had just imprinted on me on Friday. Like ducks."

"Ducks…?" J'onn repeated.

"Yeah. How ducks know that they belong to the first species they see? I thought maybe he figured that I was one of his kind too. And that he already imprinted on me when I first pulled him out of that comet, and not when he woke up."

"How would you know that?"

"Because I'd been feeling weird all weekend. Frustrated, but… I didn't want to be around Maggie. We fought, _so much_. And I started thinking that maybe it had been because of that alien's imprint on me. That it got worse the closer I was to her. So… when he bit her, he was just trying to finish her off. But he wanted to protect me from her by clawing me, losing a nail."

"Why would that protect you, Alex?" J'onn was deeply confused. Alex had an actual plausible theory that she hadn't opened up to anyone. If he'd known about it, everything would have been different…

"His blood. There was blood on the fingernail but it didn't belong to me. It was his. He'd clawed in his own hand and gave me his blood, because that protected me from Maggie. From other people that were interested in me."

She chuckled weakly as she glanced back at her hand. "So… I figured that maybe it worked the other way around too."

J'onn scoffed. "That's a stretch. There is _no way_ that you could have known that for sure."

Alex looked down, and shook her head weakly. "No… I didn't. But that didn't matter. I was ready to die if it meant trying to save Maggie. And I think that maybe… That's what broke the bond."

"But the bond _wasn't_ broken, Alex. You _died_!" J'onn shook his head. "You killed him, and you died!"

"I… remember a lot of pain." Alex frowned. "But… I kept on seeing Maggie. So, I told one of the biologists to draw her blood. The second I touched it, I felt different. Like… Like someone else loved me, not just him. I think that's what gave me the strength to survive him. If his blood protected me from Maggie, then… I figured, Maggie's blood would protect me from him."

J'onn winced at the cruelness of it all, before he realized just how genius Alex actually was for figuring that out.

But it didn't ease his mind.

"Why didn't you _tell_ anyone, Alex?! We could have helped you!"

"You couldn't have, J'onn." Alex seemed to have made peace with it, a long time ago. "I had to do this alone. Just in case it didn't work like I thought it did."

J'onn sighed, pointing a finger at her. "You're never, _ever_ allowed to do that again. And that's an order, Alex."

Alex smiled weakly. "Deal."

She moved to hop off the stretcher, with only one thing left on her mind.

 _Maggie._


	10. Chapter 10

_A defense mechanism. A failsafe._

Amelia Hamilton was hunched over the charts at the foot of Maggie's bed, trying to make sense of it.

When she'd walked back into the med bay after J'onn had told her to get her head straight and take care of her patient, Maggie had been unresponsive.

" _Maggie_ …?" Amelia had raced to the woman's side, checking the monitors next to the bed. Her heartrate, blood pressure… everything was normal. Her eyes were open and blinking, but she wasn't responding to anything.

"Hey… Can you hear me?"

Maggie squeezed her eyes shut, before blinking furiously. Amelia reached for her hand. "Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

A few seconds later, she felt the weak pressure on her fingers. So Maggie _was_ still in there.

"Amelia."

She heard her name being called behind her, and turned around.

" _Alex_ …?!" Her eyes widened when she saw the agent standing in the doorway. "Y-you're…"

"Alive, yeah. So I heard." Alex smiled weakly. "Don't worry, I'm not a shapeshifter or anything. Just… figured out how to break the bond. Just in time."

Amelia sighed in relief, as she ran up to Alex and wrapped her arms around her. They hadn't really been touchy and open about their feelings at work, but they were good friends. And the prospect of losing Alex had been nothing short of devastating.

When they pulled away, Alex glanced at her girlfriend on the bed. "How is she?"

"She's in there."

The vague answer confused Alex. "What do you mean?"

"I think the poison is manifesting. Maybe it was always latent from the start, but it has just now started developing because of the alien's death." Amelia sighed. "She's deteriorating fast, Alex. We're out of our depth."

The words felt like Amelia had taken a sledgehammer to Alex's gut. She moved past the doctor to finally rest at Maggie's side.

To her relief, Maggie didn't show any signs of discomfort or pain at her closeness. That was one problem she'd fixed – thank _god_.

She wasn't sure if she'd be that lucky a second time.

"What do we know?" Alex glanced back at Amelia as she pulled a pair of gloves from a dispenser nearby and put them on, before walking to the glass wall and analyzing the data Amelia had already provided.

"Low blood pressure ever since we took blood. Heartrate has been stable, oxygen saturation is normal. Slightly diminished lung sounds on the left, but not concerning, and we've been battling the infection with antibiotics and a morphine drip."

Alex took a step back. "We have the alien's body. The entire bio team is analyzing his mouth to get a better look at his saliva. We haven't been focusing on it all weekend."

Amelia noticed the deep regret in that last sentence, and understood what Alex meant. If they _had_ focused on it, they'd have known that the alien was more dangerous than they thought. They could have prevented it.

Of course, hindsight was 20/20. There was nothing they could do about it now, but move forward.

"She squeezed my hand, so it could be local paralysis."

Alex moved back towards Maggie's form on the bed, and caressed her face. "Hey, babe… I'm here, it's okay. I'm going to help you."

Maggie blinked up at her, but didn't reply. Alex smiled weakly, and rested her forehead on Maggie's. "See, I can touch you again… I fixed it."

She glanced down to where the bite mark had been bandaged, and carefully peeled the layers away to look underneath. The wound was raw and angry, but at least it had stopped bleeding.

"I'll stay here until we get an update. You should get some rest." Alex said, looking at her friend. Amelia looked exhausted, but she still looked like she wanted to fight. To help.

The doctor sighed. "Are you going to be okay?"

Alex smiled. "Yeah, I think I am."

"I'll pass by the biolab to tell them about her condition. Call me, the _second_ something changes, okay?"

Alex nodded, and watched Amelia walk out of the lab, rubbing her forehead. She respected the woman to death; Amelia always had her back. The amount of time they'd spend by themselves in the med bay, when she was stitching Alex up after a mission, or just drinking coffee and sharing theories and analyses… Amelia was one of the only people at the DEO that she actually had a connection with.

She ran her thumb across the back of Maggie's hand, the ghost of a smile on her face as she looked at her girlfriend's eyes fixed on her. "I kicked the alien's ass, babe."

She backtracked with a weak chuckle. "Well, actually, I shot him between the eyes, but it still counts. So he's gone, and he'll never hurt us again."

When Maggie didn't respond, apart from blinking, Alex swallowed thickly. "I'm sorry for all the things I did. I… I've been under that thing's influence since Friday, but it doesn't make it right. I shouldn't have…" She cut herself off with a sigh. "Well, we'll have this conversation when you're better, and when you can reply. I'm sure you're frustrated about all this."

She felt Maggie squeeze her hand, and Alex squeezed it back gently. There was no need for words anymore. She just settled on holding Maggie's hand and taking a seat next to the bed. "Just squeeze if you need anything, babe. I'm not going anywhere."

A few minutes later, when Alex was on the verge of falling asleep, she was shook awake by the sound of a phone buzzing. She looked down at her own, but the screen was black.

Maggie's eyes were focused on something to her right. Alex moved up to see Maggie's phone on the end table next to the bed, vibrating and jumping around. She leaned over Maggie, placing a hand on the bed, and grabbed it.

Maggie was blinking furiously. _Answer it._

They didn't need to talk to know what the other was thinking at this point. Alex didn't waste time in answering the call and bringing the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"… _Mags? You sound different_ …"

Alex didn't like the flirty way the woman on the other end of the line said Maggie's name, but decided quickly that it was honestly a problem for another day. "This is Alex, her girlfriend."

" _Oh, the scientist! It's so nice to finally meet you_!" The woman now sounded cheerful and legitimately interested. " _Maggie keeps on gushing all about you_."

"Yeah, about that… Maggie can't really come to the phone right now…"

" _Oh damn… has the paralysis already set in?_ "

Alex frowned. "Uh… Yeah, we think so. How do you know?"

" _A friend of mine is from that alien's galaxy. Maggie called me for help. How is she doing, is it bad?_ "

"I don't know." Alex answered honestly. "Her eyes are open, it looks like she's awake, but she can't talk. She's squeezing my hand, though."

" _Good, that means it hasn't gotten worse yet. Can you do something for me? Can you check her chest? I need to know if there is a mark near her heart._ "

"Hang on." Alex moved the phone to press it between her ear and her cheek, as she looked at her girlfriend. "Mags, I love you. I need to pull up the sheets a bit, okay? And your clothes too. Can you squeeze my hand if that's alright?"

A tiny squeeze. Enough for Alex to ease the gnawing feeling that she was crossing a line that Maggie didn't want crossed. As she pulled down the sheets, she spoke into the phone again. "What kind of mark are we talking?"

" _You'll notice it when you see it._ "

That didn't make Alex feel less nervous, as she finally saw Maggie's toned chest rising and falling. She glanced up quickly to meet her eyes, but Maggie was staring up, and not making eye-contact.

Near her heart, on the left side, black lines were visible, following the veins leading to her heart. Alex's stomach turned. "Uh… y-yeah. There are… uh… black marks."

" _Damn it… Okay, well, at least we know for sure what we're dealing with. It's venom. A friend of mine has a natural antidote against it, but she's currently in Alaska visiting family._ "

"Text Maggie the address, we can have someone there in less than an hour. What can we do until then? Is it going to get worse?"

" _I'm not sure. She said that the side effects could include paralysis, those marks on the chest that show the infection spreading. Her heart could stop, she could stop breathing… It all depends on where the infection sets first. But it can go fast."_

"She was fine a few minutes ago, from what I heard." Alex sighed. "We'll keep monitoring her. Get me that address."

" _Keep me posted, please._ " The woman disconnected the call.

Alex took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Maggie would be fine – they had the antidote. It was just a matter of time.

Time… That she wasn't sure the woman had.

She moved forward to put an oxygen mask over Maggie's face. "This is just to help you breathe a little better, babe. Can you squeeze my hand if you're feeling okay?"

No reaction. Alex carefully pushed a strand of hair away from Maggie's face. "Are you in pain?"

A squeeze.

It broke Alex's heart. She reached for her own cellphone, and dialed her sister's number.

"… _Alex! Where the hell are you? I've been waiting here for-…"_

Alex cut her off quickly. "Kara, I'm sorry. I had to go back to the DEO. But I need you." She got up from her seat, and turned away from her girlfriend to continue the call. "Maggie's getting worse, Kara. There's an alien that has an antidote, she's in Alaska. I'll send you the address. Can you _please_ go get it?"

" _I'm on my way_."

Alex sighed in relief, as she disconnected, and turned back around.

"You hear that, babe? Everything's going to be okay."


	11. Chapter 11

Ever since the phonecall to her sister, Alex was alternating between pacing around the med bay and sitting next to Maggie's bed to hold her hand. Because she knew that her girlfriend couldn't talk, she had to check in herself every once in a while if there was anything she needed.

Now that Kara had been gone for at least fifteen minutes, she began to get more and more anxious at the prospect of finally getting Maggie the cure, in time.

But the first time Alex _truly_ panicked ever since she'd been resurrected from the dead, was when she heard a strangled gasp coming from the woman she loved.

The choked sound that came out of Maggie made her stomach turn in fear.

"Babe…?" She whispered, as she ran back to the bed, reaching for her hand. "Mags, are you okay?"

The detective's eyes were staring up at the ceiling. Her entire frame was shaking with the effort it took to take a wheezy breath. And another, and then another.

 _She couldn't breathe._

And Alex panicked.

"Maggie!" She glanced up at the monitors surrounding them, and found that one of them had started beeping uncontrollably. "Shit… _shit_!"

She ignored her heart thumping painfully in her chest, and moved to the oxygen tank to increase the flow.

 _It all depends on where the infection sets first._

She wasted no time in pulling the sheets down and Maggie's shirt up once again, to gain easier access, and brought a nearby stethoscope to Maggie's chest.

She glanced up at her girlfriend's face slowly as she tried to see any form of discomfort, but Maggie looked stoic as she wheezed.

Alex didn't need a medical degree to know that her girlfriend was dying.

The decreased lung sounds on the right were now nearly non-existent. The infection had probably tainted Maggie's left lung.

"Fuck… fuck…" Alex whispered to herself, as she flung the stethoscope somewhere behind her, considering her options.

She could try and intubate. But the DEO didn't have that type of equipment; for human injuries the agents were usually transported to National City General.

And Maggie didn't have that kind of time.

Alex ran a hand through her hair. If J'onn could get Maggie to a hospital, that would save her time.

But they couldn't explain to any doctors that she'd been bitten by an unknown alien caveman species. _Fuck_.

She was powerless against Maggie's pathetic wheezing.

" _oh god_ …" Alex tried to get a hold of herself, moving back up to stroke Maggie's hair out of her face. "I'm here, babe… Just try to breathe, okay? Kara is coming… Just hold on…"

 _Just hold on, please_.

Alex fished her cellphone out of her pocket, and dialed Kara's number.

The antagonizing beeping couldn't have lasted more than ten seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

" _This is Kara Danvers, I'm not available, but_ …"

Alex threw her phone across the med bay.

Kara was flying at the speed of sound. She _couldn't_ pick up the phone.

Alex knew that. Kara had _told_ her that years ago.

But that didn't matter now. Kara could be held up in Alaska, or… shot down somewhere by some military base she was flying over… or…

Alex shoved her fist against her thigh forcefully to stop herself from finishing that train of thought. Kara was _fine_. Just flying as fast as she could to get there.

Maggie just had to hold on.

Alex balled her hands into fists, before moving back to focus on her girlfriend with a watery smile. "Come on, baby, you can do it. I know you can hear me. Just follow my breaths, okay?"

She moved her girlfriend's trembling hand against her own chest. "In, and out… Come on, Mags. You can't… You can't _do_ this to me. I can't lose you."

A strangled wheeze was all the reply she got.

"You can't leave me. You _can't_." Alex chuckled weakly. "Lifetime of firsts, remember? I'm _not_ living without you…"

She barely felt her own tears slipping down her face and landing on Maggie's face and throat. " _Please_ babe…"

"What's going on?!" She heard a worried voice behind her, and snapped her head up from its position on Maggie's forehead, to see a wide-eyed Amelia standing in the doorway.

"H-her breathing…"

Amelia ran forward, and began to check the equipment. All Alex could do was stagger backwards and watch her.

One glance at the discarded stethoscope on the floor made Amelia aware of what had transpired in the last few minutes. "Where is Kara?"

"O-on her way, I think." Alex replied with a shaky voice.

"Go check with Winn if you can track her to get an ETA."

"We can't intubate-…" The agent started, trying to retake some control of herself, but Amelia shook her head. "We have to. I'll figure something out, but get me that ETA!"

Alex nodded breathlessly, and ran out of the med bay, and to the command center.

"WINN!" She yelled, announcing her presence the second she turned the corner. The tech agent was talking on his headset with somebody, but Alex didn't know who. Didn't _care_ who.

"So, if you triangulate the coordinates with _our_ software, you should-…"

Alex ran towards him and pulled his headset off forcefully. He yelped and spun around in his chair. "Alex?!"

"Track Kara." The two words were filled with so much despair and fear, that Winn understood immediately that Maggie's condition was getting dramatic. "Last she checked in, she had…"

He trailed off when he saw that Alex wasn't in the mood for chatting and random information. She needed an _answer_. He pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Uh… Yeah, she's currently flying over Oregon, so I'd say… thirty minutes?"

Alex closed her eyes and gripped the desk in front of her for support as she felt her knees buckle.

Thirty minutes of Maggie's wheezing – she couldn't take that.

Without another sound, she ran back towards the med bay, where she saw that Amelia had already asked one of the junior doctors for help. The both of them were using one of the DEO state-of-the-art scanners to no doubt search for whatever discrepancies they could find.

Alex ran into the lab, her heart beating in her throat once again. Amelia glanced up, and the women had a few seconds of silent eye-contact.

Before Alex whispered.

" _Thirty minutes_."

The micro-expression of defeat on Amelia's face wouldn't have been noticeable by anyone else.

But of course, Alex picked up on it.

"We're going to intubate her with the equipment we have. J'onn is flying over to NC Gen to get what we need." Amelia paused. "But that's all we can do until we have the antidote."

Alex had come to the same conclusion not even five minutes ago. But that didn't make it hurt less. She had to stay strong for Maggie. Show her that they were going to fix this.

Instead, she found herself falling onto her knees. Suddenly, all of the emotions of the past few hours were pouring out, as she screamed her lungs out in despair. The rest of the room went dark to her, as she was stuck in her own world of pain and fear. She was _losing_ Maggie – the woman she loved more than anyone in this universe.

She felt a pair of hands pull at her upper arms, but she was caught up in everything rushing back to her. Her state of _death_ , waking up to see Maggie lying in a hospital bed, unable to move anything but her fingertips…

"Alex."

" _Alex_."

" _Agent Danvers_?"

When she finally snapped her eyes open again with a gasp, she found herself staring at a ceiling she vaguely recognized, and lying on something soft.

"Agent Danvers?"

The same voice. Alex tilted her head to the side with a confused frown, and saw the junior doctor from the med bay earlier standing next to her with a weak smile. "It's okay, you're okay."

As she started to get her bearings, Alex realized where she recognized the ceiling from.

All too many desperate prayers, and annoyed glances up as her research ran into a wall. She was in the bio lab, lying on a stretcher. Around her, the research tables had been put aside to make room for medical beds with agents lying on them with varying degrees of injuries.

"Did I pass out?" Alex whispered hoarsely, still trying to remember what had happened. But the only thing she felt was a mind-numbing pain.

"You had a… nervous breakdown." Alex heard the hesitation in the man's voice – he obviously seemed torn on whether or not to go with the clinical terms. "We put you here in the med bay with the others so you'd get some rest – you collapsed, ma'am."

One moment of silence later, everything came rushing back with a jolt that raced through her entire body. She snapped her head up, but the man raised his hand quickly to ease her back onto the stretcher. "You've been out for about 45 minutes."

"45… oh _god_ …" The question in her shocked reply was audible. And the man in front of her wasn't an idiot.

"Supergirl took a bit longer than we expected. Doctor Hamilton is in the med bay with her now."

It still felt like an evasive answer, but Alex swung her body off the stretcher in a less-than-elegant move anyway.

"I think you should-…" The man tried, but Alex glared up at him, and his eyes widened in fear as he saw her raise a finger. "Finish that sentence."

"…stay here and get some more rest?"

Alex was already out the door.

Sprinting through the corridors as fast as her worn down body would go, until she finally skidded to halt in front of the med bay, and nearly ran into the door in her haste to get inside.

As the door finally slid open for her, she took in the sight in front of her.

Maggie, sitting upright on the bed, as Amelia was listening to her lungs with the stethoscope Alex had flung to the other side of the room.

Kara was sat next to the bed, holding Maggie's hand and whispering at her.

But nothing else mattered but _Maggie._ Alive, sitting up, and laughing weakly at whatever Kara had just told her.

As soon as Alex took a step into the room, Kara got up and walked over to her, to let Amelia continue her tests.

"Are you okay?" Her sister glanced her up and down with a concerned frown. "They told me you passed out…"

"I'm _fine_." Alex dismissed quickly. "I-is she… is it…?"

Kara smiled. "I got here in time."

Alex felt herself become lightheaded with relief, as she fell into her sister's arms. Kara laughed, and hugged her sister back.

"Thank you… _so much_ , Kara."

"Hey, don't thank me. She did that one all by herself." The blonde glanced back at the detective on the bed. "She has a _lot_ of friends that owe her some favors."

Alex laughed, feeling tears sting in her eyes once again, as she finally walked over to Maggie on the bed, who was smiling at her. "Hey."

It was a croak, more than a word. Which meant that Amelia did end up intubating her. Her voice would be screwed up for a few more hours, days at the most. But Alex continued laughing weakly, as she dropped down onto the chair near Maggie's bed, intending to never get up again until Maggie was cleared to go home.

"No hug?" Maggie grunted with a playful scowl. Alex moved forward, but hesitated at the sight of Amelia still trying to perform her tests.

The doctor picked up on Alex's hesitance, and chuckled. "By all means. Don't let me get in the way of _that_."

She put her equipment aside. "The alien gave Kara some instructions on aftercare, but her body healed pretty much instantly, so there shouldn't be any lasting effects. Respiration rates are back to normal, no decreased sounds. You two have a good night."

Amusedly, Alex watched Amelia swagger out of the med bay. That woman really _was_ something.

Kara glanced after her, before clearing her throat awkwardly. "Uh… Yeah, I guess…"

"Thank you, Kara." Maggie croaked.

Alex nodded. "Get some rest, you must be exhausted after all that flying."

When the two of them were alone after exchanging 'good night's with Kara, Alex took a shaky breath. "I thought… I…"

Maggie reached forward to caress her face softly. "I heard what you said. About not wanting to live without me."

Alex wanted to protest at how painful it had to be for Maggie to talk so much, but she nodded silently, as Maggie tilted her head. "You killed the alien… you should have died."

"I did." Alex gently pried Maggie's hands away from her face to kiss them. "But you brought me back."

A weak grin. "I'll be your miracle any time, Danvers."

* * *

 **The End.**

 _ **A/N:** Thank you guys so much for all the lovely feedback and for sticking around to finish the story! What a rollercoaster it was once again! It's such a pleasure to write when you have such indrecibly supportive readers!_

 _Be sure to check out 'Witness' as well, which is going to be my last story before I'm taking a long Fanfiction break!_

-S


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